Looking to hear only from this who actually do mega backdoor Roth conversions on a regular basis, not those who may have just heard or read about it.
I make after-tax contributions (and max out pre-tax) from my paychecks to my 401k account at Vanguard. The 401k plan allows taking in-service withdrawals of the after-tax contributions without any penalties. I have a Roth IRA account also with Vanguard. I would like to move the after-tax contributions from 401k to Roth IRA ASAP to avoid any tax on earnings. So I go to Vanguard’s website under my 401k plan to rollover the after-tax part into the Roth IRA account. I don’t see an option so I call Vanguard up and here’s what they tell me:
- it’s possible to do what I want to do but,
- I’d have to do it over phone by calling them after each contribution to initiate the roll over
- not just that, but after I call them, they’ll mail out, yes mail out, some forms which will take 7-10 business days to arrive that I need to fill and sign and mail them back - every 2 weeks to do the rollover after each paycheck.
- once they receive the paperwork, the rollover process takes another week at least.
- the agent mentioned that if I had a Roth IRA account outside of Vanguard they would not need the paperwork each time but still would need me to call them to initiate the process.
All of this sounds like it’s a deliberate attempt to make the process too difficult. Also it sounds backwards that Vanguard would make it easier to rollover the money to a Roth IRA account outside Vanguard than keep within.
Is it so difficult to do this everywhere? Do other employers / brokerages make it easier? Ideally I’d like this to happen automatically or at least self-service on the website rather than having to call each time.
Want to see the real deal?
More inside scoop? View in App
More inside scoop? View in App
blind
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
FOLLOWING
Industries
Job Groups
- Software Engineering
- Product Management
- Information Technology
- Data Science & Analytics
- Management Consulting
- Hardware Engineering
- Design
- Sales
- Security
- Investment Banking & Sell Side
- Marketing
- Private Equity & Buy Side
- Corporate Finance
- Supply Chain
- Business Development
- Human Resources
- Operations
- Legal
- Admin
- Customer Service
- Communications
Return to Office
Work From Home
COVID-19
Layoffs
Investments & Money
Work Visa
Housing
Referrals
Job Openings
Startups
Office Life
Mental Health
HR Issues
Blockchain & Crypto
Fitness & Nutrition
Travel
Health Care & Insurance
Tax
Hobbies & Entertainment
Working Parents
Food & Dining
IPO
Side Jobs
Show more
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
comments
I never tried to roll it to Roth IRA.
Why do you want to do that instead of using Roth 401k?
I fax the form in to my 401k provider every 3 months, then my 401k provider sends a check in the mail to my Roth IRA account at schwab.
Not convenient if you’re going to do it every paycheck. I don’t mind the hassle 4x/year but I do find the process to be silly.
This comment was deleted by original commenter.