Fidelity IRA Rollover Fees

March 9, 2024 9:52 AM

I have a rollover IRA with Fidelity; I rolled my Fidelity 401K fund into the IRA after retirement. I’ve made a few withdrawals (when it was still a 401K) and was charged what I considered to be hefty transaction fees.

I also have a Vanguard IRA. The withdrawals I’ve made from that account haven’t incurred any fees that I’ve seen. Both accounts are traditional IRAs.

I would like to transfer/rollover the Fidelity account to my Vanguard account. I am wondering if anyone else had done so, what kind of fees were they charged by Fidelity? Googling for this information hasn’t been useful. Reportedly Fidelity doesn’t charge fees for any IRA withdrawals, though my experience with them suggests otherwise.

posted by coldhotel to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Best answer: Assuming an IRA would be similar: I rolled over a 401(a) -- which is like a 401(k) but for public orgs -- that was administered by Fidelity to a Vanguard IRA. I was not charged any fees or penalties. Fidelity sent me a paper check which I had to mail on to Vanguard, if I remember correctly, which was somewhat annoying.
posted by egregious theorem at 10:28 AM on March 9, 2024

Best answer: There are a few things that could be happening. You could be selling funds that themselves have a redemption fee. This has nothing to do with Fidelity per se. It looks like Fidelity may also charge a short-term trading fee for funds that are outside of their own fund families, if they were held for less than 60 days.

Fidelity's fee schedule is here: https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/Brokerage_Commissions_Fee_Schedule.pdf
posted by AndrewInDC at 11:07 AM on March 9, 2024 [2 favorites]

Fidelity fee schedule [clickable]
posted by craniac at 11:34 AM on March 9, 2024 [1 favorite]

Your withdrawals were from a 401k, not an IRA. Are you sure they were fees, or were they penalties or tax withholding in anticipation of penalties?
posted by soelo at 5:38 PM on March 9, 2024

Response by poster: They were fees; I was 68 when the withdrawals were made. I believe AndrewinDC has it right; individual funds had their own redemption fees.
posted by coldhotel at 9:15 PM on March 9, 2024