Author Topic: Vanguard taking forever  (Read 6189 times)

iloveramen

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Vanguard taking forever
« on: June 27, 2016, 06:45:13 PM »
Has anyone had delay issues transferring to Vanguard? I sent the paperwork via overnight last month before Memorial day weekend. The website status states that it is still waiting for my paperwork. I called Vanguard today to check the status of the transfer. Vanguard has received the paperwork, but couldn't give me an answer why it is taking a little over a month to process. The rep told me it is still in queue and can take 3-4 weeks.

Has anyone had this issue before?

nereo

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2016, 07:07:42 PM »
Has anyone had delay issues transferring to Vanguard? I sent the paperwork via overnight last month before Memorial day weekend. The website status states that it is still waiting for my paperwork. I called Vanguard today to check the status of the transfer. Vanguard has received the paperwork, but couldn't give me an answer why it is taking a little over a month to process. The rep told me it is still in queue and can take 3-4 weeks.

Has anyone had this issue before?

This has been my one real criticism of Vanguard; while they give excellent phone support, transfers can take a long time and there's often no additional info available online other than "in progress".

In 2015 I transferred a number of old 401(k) and old mutual funds to Vanguard.  Some took about three weeks to complete.  YMMV

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2016, 07:59:57 PM »
I encouraged my fiancé to transfer her investments to Vanguard. She resisted but eventually agreed that it was the best place to put her money.

Then holy shit, the transfer was terrible. I thought she was going to kill me.

Luckily, once everything was settled, the customer service has been great.

Just stay on top of it and keep calling.

iloveramen

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2016, 08:08:48 PM »
Thanks for the advice everyone.  I am glad I am not the only one.  I will keep hounding them.

madamwitty

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2016, 08:27:57 PM »
Is this an in-kind transfer? I did an indirect 401k to IRA rollover (i.e. via check) and it went very fast, but it seems to me that an in-kind transfer could be more complicated.

iloveramen

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2016, 09:32:47 PM »
Is this an in-kind transfer? I did an indirect 401k to IRA rollover (i.e. via check) and it went very fast, but it seems to me that an in-kind transfer could be more complicated.

It is transferring in-kind. Vanguard just haven't touched it yet. *sigh

VaCPA

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2016, 07:13:13 AM »
Has anyone had delay issues transferring to Vanguard? I sent the paperwork via overnight last month before Memorial day weekend. The website status states that it is still waiting for my paperwork. I called Vanguard today to check the status of the transfer. Vanguard has received the paperwork, but couldn't give me an answer why it is taking a little over a month to process. The rep told me it is still in queue and can take 3-4 weeks.

Has anyone had this issue before?

They don't update the status online which is kind of annoying. Mine said awaiting paperwork I think even after the transfer was finally complete. I think mine took about 3-4 weeks, same as they quoted you. Hang tight, it'll happen soon

Retire in CO

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2016, 07:57:34 AM »
My husband had a Roth at a bank. He submitted the paper work to transfer it to his Roth at Vanguard back in April. After several phone calls due to the "waiting for paperwork from client" notation, he thought this transfer would be soon completed. Received a call from the bank last week that the check had been returned from Vanguard and wanted to know what to do with it! Called Vanguard....they had no record of receiving the check, returning it to the bank, or even his multiple calls to try to get this transfer accomplished. Checked this morning and the $$ has arrived in "unavailable shares" so keeping fingers crossed. Took 3 months.

catccc

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2016, 07:59:35 AM »
Hmm, I feel like I did a rollover recently and it was smooth sailing, 2-3 weeks tops.

sonjak

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2016, 08:35:42 AM »
A LONG time ago I worked for Fidelity on the "MoneyOut" team.  We processed distributions/rollovers/transfers/etc.  Some were really easy to do.  The forms were standard, the rules weren't too complicated, etc.  Some were the exact opposite (this was especially true for small company plans that designed their own form/plan. 

When I was hired, the team was really behind.  Like a month behind.  We worked a lot of overtime.  The simple distributions pretty much everyone could do, the more complicated ones sat there in the queue until a more experienced person could get to them.  I quickly became able to do those but even so, it took us quite awhile and many days of working through lunches and late to catch up to a daily queue that was manageable and something we could get through in a normal 8 hours. 

I don't know if they still process "by hand" but I suspect if they do, that's what they're/you're dealing with.  Not incompetence or lack of desire, just some short-staffing, training time, lots of people taking advantage of the job market and switching jobs, etc.

Axecleaver

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2016, 09:53:03 AM »
Companies who have lost your business - where you're transferring out - often have complex processes that discourage people from moving their money. Apparently this is completely legal and some folks just give up and keep their money somewhere when the barriers are hard to overcome.

The impression I got was that it was the sending company, not the receiving company, where the problems lie. I had to do daily phone calls for about three weeks to keep things moving.

mskyle

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2016, 10:11:34 AM »
I've done three or four 403b rollovers to Vanguard in the last year, and I have another one in the works right now (I'll finally be almost completely consolidated!). Some of them took a while but it was mostly the other custodian that held things up, not Vanguard. Everything seemed to move pretty quickly on the Vanguard end.

James

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #12 on: June 28, 2016, 10:19:37 AM »
I agree with the others, my transfers have taken a while, but go through eventually. I never got the feeling it was poorly done, just slow. I would guess vanguard wants the money in their accounts quickly, doubt they WANT to spend all that time with the transfer in the works, but that's just speculation. What counts is that the money ends up where you want it, those weeks of waiting are pretty normal and unavoidable I think. Customer service has always been great otherwise, so my guess is if they could make it painless they would...


Best of luck for a quick resolution.

iloveramen

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2016, 11:50:23 AM »
Thanks for all the suggestion.  I guess I will be more patient and call the periodically to check up on the status.

canadian bacon

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Re: Vanguard taking forever
« Reply #14 on: June 29, 2016, 12:57:35 PM »
A few months ago, a pull transfer from Vanguard took so long that I cancelled it.  replaced it with a push transfer from my bank.  nice and fast

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!