All in One Place
BEFORE 2022, OUR investments were held by multiple financial firms, more by chance than choice. Fidelity Investments was the 401(k) recordkeeper. My two individual stocks were held by separate transfer agents. My brokerage account was with Alight Financial. My two annuities and a small IRA were with RiverSource. It was a mess.
Each had different processes, websites with different functionality, and customer service that ranged from nonexistent to annoying. In one case, I couldn’t take a required minimum distribution online. I was required to speak with someone each time—a rep who’d then suggest where I put the cash.
My misplaced loyalty to my former employer—where I’d set up the 401(k) plan—for years kept me from rolling over my plan balance. When my old employer implemented a fee on inactive accounts, though, I’d had enough. It was especially annoying because, years before, I’d negotiated that all plan recordkeeping costs would be paid by the plan trust. The added fee would have meant that I paid twice for the same services.
Given that Fidelity was the plan’s recordkeeper, rolling over to a Fidelity IRA was easy. I initiated it online. Once I did that and saw Fidelity’s great website, I inquired about consolidating our other investments there.
My wife Connie and I went to the local Fidelity office. The consolidation process was explained. We discussed which mutual funds that I owned in the 401(k) could also be held in my IRA, and which Fidelity or other funds would come close to duplicating the others that I owned. Connie needed her own account because she had a small IRA.
Sign here, sign there. Everything was consolidated, though the annuity transfer took several months and several calls by Fidelity. It was a bit annoying—I was pressured not to move the annuities. Fidelity handled all the paperwork.
Everything is in one place now. Possibly the greatest benefit is at tax time. Waiting for those separate statements and ensuring I had everything I needed to file was a hassle. One year, I’d already filed when a late-arriving 1099 required me to amend our tax return.
Now, one consolidated statement does it all. TurboTax says it can download the information directly from our accounts, though I haven’t made that leap yet.
I regularly explore the Fidelity website. I like Fidelity, but no doubt other vendors are similarly robust. A click here and I see my net worth. I added the estimated value of our homes to the roster. Touch “activity” and every transaction, every reinvestment and every transfer appear.
I can see my overall gain or loss by investment, including for that day. The “research” function gives me more than I need to know about each investment. I’ve linked our bank accounts to Fidelity, so money flows back and forth in minutes—well, overnight at least.
While exploring the site yesterday, I found an option to add non-Fidelity accounts to the home screen display. Now, when I log on, I see not only our investments, but also the balances of each of our bank accounts. I love this technology stuff.
Years ago, I remember walking into our local bank with my passbook account to make a deposit and have it entered into my book. In the old days, I used to hold stock certificates. I recall sitting in a broker’s office watching the ticker roll by. What does a broker's office look like today? Heck, I remember the milkman delivering to our apartment with a horse and wagon filled with blocks of ice, but I guess that’s a story for another day.
One thing does give me pause. Where are all our investments? I mean where are they actually? What proof do we have that all these investments are ours? We’re nothing but account numbers on a bunch of computers. If the web implodes, does it all disappear? Is the monthly consolidated statement that I print out our security blanket? I hope never to find out.
In the future, with the growth of artificial intelligence, I’m hoping for even greater capabilities. When will I be able to say, “Fidelity, increase my net worth by 10% next month”?
Richard Quinn blogs at QuinnsCommentary.net. Before retiring, Dick was a compensation and benefits executive. Follow him on Twitter @QuinnsComments and check out his earlier articles.
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