Transfers and rollovers
Bringing an existing account in.
Transfers are the step most likely to stall, usually because a document is missing and nobody says which one. So we show you.
What can move in
| Coming from | Into | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional IRA at another custodian | Traditional IRA | Direct transfer |
| Roth IRA at another custodian | Roth IRA | Direct transfer |
| Former employer 401(k) or 403(b) | Traditional IRA | Direct rollover |
| Former employer Roth 401(k) | Roth IRA | Direct rollover |
| SEP or SIMPLE IRA | Traditional IRA | Direct transfer, subject to the SIMPLE two-year rule |
| Inherited IRA | Inherited IRA | Handled at Investor Services |
What a transfer needs
- The delivering institution and account number
- A recent statement, so the account can be identified exactly
- Your authorisation, signed electronically
- Sometimes a signature guarantee or a wet signature — the delivering institution decides
Where your transfer is
A transfer has its own state ladder, and the portal shows which state yours is in and what is blocking it if anything is.
Requested
You have authorised it. Nothing has been sent yet.
Submitted
The request has gone to the delivering institution.
In progress
They have acknowledged it. Timing is theirs, not ours.
Received
Assets or cash have arrived.
Posted
Recorded to your account by the custodian.
Reconciled
Matched against the custodian’s record.
What we will tell you honestly
Transfer timing is largely controlled by the institution sending the money. We will show you what stage yours is at and what is outstanding, and we will not promise a date we do not control.
Direct, not a check to you
A direct rollover from a plan, or a trustee-to-trustee transfer from another IRA, moves the money without paying it to you — no withholding, no 60-day deadline, no once-per-year limit. An indirect rollover pays you first: the plan withholds 20 percent, you have 60 days to redeposit the full amount, and only one indirect IRA-to-IRA rollover is allowed in any 12 months. We are built to keep every move direct, and we will say so when a form would make it indirect.
What each move reports
| Move | Reported as |
|---|---|
| Trustee-to-trustee transfer | Not a distribution: no Form 1099-R from the sender; not a rollover contribution on Form 5498 |
| Direct rollover from a plan | The plan reports it with the direct-rollover code; we report a rollover contribution on Form 5498 |
| Indirect rollover completed within 60 days | Same as a direct rollover, once the full amount is redeposited |
| Roth conversion | Not a transfer: taxable, reported on both sides |
Moving out
There is no fee to transfer out or to close the account. Portability is the point of the product; charging for it would undermine the argument.
See footnote 1
Footnotes
- No account establishment fee, no maintenance fee and no closing fee. Cash held in the money market option carries no MyFreeIRA fee. Investment options other than the money market may carry third-party costs, described on the Fees page. ↩