Contact Fidelity.
Hi Gizmo,
At the beginning of this process, I asked Fidelity if they would handle the paperwork, etc. They refused. Do you have thoughts on how I might persuade them to take on this process? Are there other companies that always handle rollover paperwork?
That is odd. You called them, told them you had an old 403b with X company and want to move it to Fidelity, and they told you thanks, but no thanks?
It may be that you'll need to convert that 403b over to a rollover IRA first with the crappy old company.
Contact Fido again, ask to speak to a manager with 403b expertise, and explain this stuff to them and ask for their help to get this process figured out so you can get your account and money over to them ASAP. If they legit have no clue, then the following is my (possibly convoluted and wrong but worth a try) suggestion.
It seems like the sticking point might be the type of account since it's not in IRA format. You can't transfer a non-IRA account to an IRA; I believe you have to convert that 403b
in situ first, THEN transfer - like to like - so has to be an IRA at Newport
first, then fill out the paperwork (with Fidelity) to move the Newport IRA to a Fidelity IRA.
So first off, check if you can open a rollover IRA account online
at Newport and move the 403b from your Newport 403b to a Newport rollover IRA. If so do this ASAP. THEN fill out the Fidelity paperwork and have THEM pull the funds over into a
Fidelity rollover IRA. Should take less than 2 weeks and you can bug them to keep on Newport until they get things moved over.
If/when you get this figured out, the process online should be here:
https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/transfer-assets^if you want to do it online (which may not be possible if you need signature guarantees)
So otherwise, you go here:
https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/customer-service/transfer-assets-to-fidelity.pdfPrint out the forms, get the needed signatory stuff (local Fidelity shops can provide the medallion signature if your own bank won't) and mail them in.
In either case, Fidelity should then take control of the transfer process and you can get them to crack the whip on the old company.
And do report Newport anyway because they are deliberately being jerks for withholding your account access, and deserve some close scrutiny for lousy business practices if they won't even speak to their customers.