Ameriprise moved Roth IRA to Brokerage Account

[LateToTheParty]

My first time on a forum, here goes...
For better or worse (worse I'm sure) I left a Roth IRA sitting with Ameriprise. Several years ago I quit putting money in it, due to expenses from a divorce. I only continued putting money in my Thrift Savings (Fed Emp savings acct w/matching up to 5%). I always intended to move the Roth because it seemed the fund was not really a good one. After seeing another post on here, I should be shot.

My $9086.00 Roth is in Columbia Large Cap Growth A (LEGAX) (sales fee 5.75%, annual operating exp 1.10%), all Class A shares.

Ameriprise informed me they were moving my Columbia mutual funds to an Ameriprise Brokerage acct. The funds will continue to be invested in same mutual funds, just in a brokerage acct. Full Brokerage fees do not apply until Feb 3. I've been looking at other companies/funds and I'm overwhelmed. I need to educate myself and get my act together as I only have another 10-12 yrs to work, but I don't have time to do this by Feb 3.

I would appreciate the following:
1) any advice/recommendations on what fund/company to move my Roth IRA before Feb 3.
2) do you recommend calling the company of the fund I select and have them do the transfer, or should I open the acct online and do the transfer myself. (I certainly wouldn't want it to appear the funds came to me at all, as I'm sure penalties, etc apply.) Thanks for any help!!!

[Gronnie]

Move it to Vanguard or Fidelity and just put it in a Target Retirement account for now if you don't have much time to deal with it.

[PFInterest]

go to vanguard or fidelity, they will transfer the account for you. place it in a target date fund (make sure it says index at fidelity).

[mhalley]

Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity all have reasonable low cost index funds. To get educated on all this stuff, one of the best places to start at the getting started site of the wiki.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started
From there, I recommend reading up about asset allocation:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Asset_allocation
The Three fund portfolio:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio
and creating an investment policy statement:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investm ... _statement
Then move the roth to one of the above brokerages and institute your plan.
Transferring it on line is perfectly fine, but you can always call if you have any questions.
Helpful article about the right way to do a rollover:
https://investorjunkie.com/34465/proper ... -ira-401k/

[David Jay]

Welcome to Bogleheads. There is just a wealth of information here.

First off, let's review a couple of terms. Your Roth consists of all of your Roth contributions and earnings. You choose a custodian (company) or custodians to hold your Roth assets. Then you can select between different holdings (funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, etc) and the custodian holds those for you.

So Ameriprise is your custodian and you have one holding in with Ameriprise - Columbia large cap growth.

You should select a new, low cost custodian and transfer your assets to the new company. Most people here on BH use Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab (that would be my sequence). Low cost custodians typical allow you to move between custodian-owned funds without charge (vanguard funds in a vanguard account, fidelity funds in a fidelity account). There is sometimes a small fee to purchase funds from other companies. There are no tax implications to changing funds within a Roth - you can do this whenever you choose.

The method to change custodians is to contact the new custodian - they have the incentive to see that the switch goes smoothly (because they want your business). This is an easy process so you can easily get it done in 2 weeks.

Because you can choose a no-load fund (no purchase cost) and switch later at no charge there is no need to wait until you decide on a new fund choice. I would call Vanguard (or one of the other custodians) tomorrow. Their website has a phone number specifically for transfers. Put the money into the TargetRetirement 2030 fund until you learn enough to decide on an asset allocation.

[LateToTheParty]

THANK You all! esp MHalley and DavidJay I appreciate your explanations so much! I'm getting right to it!