I pulled everything together over the last few days, and when I head out this morning, I will be mailing TIAA-CREF an envelope containing lots of paperwork and a check. That will move the IRA I opened in haste last April from my bank to them, and add money for tax year 2007. The investment/IRA advisor at TIAA-CREF, who I talked to again yesterday, made a note on my account and will be keeping an eye on it and let me know if there's anything missing or awry.

Sorting this out required some annoying interactions with the bank. The first was just a friendly waste of time, going in and being told no, I had to wait until after the CD I had stashed the money in matured before I could give the "don't roll it over" instruction. My friendly banker (I've talked to her before, and she is friendly and helpful) also said I didn't need to come in to the branch, I could call either the branch or the 800 number on the "your CD is maturing" letter. Tuesday morning, I called the 800 number. I got someone who told me that he couldn't do this for me, it had to be in writing. And did so in such a way that I asked him "well, what can you do?" I had already said I didn't want him to close my account, just move the money from a CD to their money market while I decided what to do next. [Closing the account will be handled separately, but I didn't tell him that; he may have guessed.] He said something about handling paperwork, and I asked why they had him answering phones. A moment's more annoyance, and a new voice cut in. She explained she was a supervisor, and said that if I had access to a fax machine, we could do it that way. She gave me their fax number and instructions on what to include in the fax. I thanked her, opened a word processor file, and they had a fax 20 minutes later. [Worst case, she lied to me, and I'll move the money to TIAA-CREF six months from now.]

This is going to TIAA-CREF because I have pension money there already, from when I worked at ACM, and it's a good deal if you're eligible (in terms of fees and the rate of return they've been managing). Eligibility is a bit complicated, but it includes anyone who works at an institution where they offer a pension plan; anyone who works at an eligible institution (nonprofit colleges adn universities, elementary and secondary schools, government entities, teaching hospitals, and museums are listed as examples); anyone who already has a retirement plan with them (that's my eligibility); or the spouse or domestic partner of anyone in one of the above groups. The limits on that are legal and historical, and connected to their non-profit status (my pension plan is at a .org domain); they're pretty clearly casting the net as widely as Congress will let them.

From: [identity profile] starcat-jewel.livejournal.com


I had a vested 401(k) account at my last permanent job that rolled over to an IRA when they laid me off. Because things were a little hectic at that time, I just let them handle it, and it's been with CitiBank ever since.

I recently decided that I really didn't want to be sharing CitiBank's exposure in the subprime mortgage industry, so I inquired with my own bank (who I like a lot) about the procedure for getting that account transferred. It turned out to be amazingly simple -- I brought them a copy of the form Citi sent me for my taxes, which had all the relevant information on it, and filled out an application for the same kind of account and a Request For Transfer, and they took it from there.

From: [identity profile] mjlayman.livejournal.com


My mortgage is with Countrywide and I am not happy about them being bought by Bank of America. I know Countrywide doesn't have as good a reputation as BofA, but BofA mistreated me and Countrywide hasn't.

(My retirement account vested when I became permanently and totally disabled which made me retire.)

From: [identity profile] janetmk.livejournal.com


I go back 30 years with TIAA-CREF. I've always been impressed with the organization and its staff and its long-term record in investments.
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