Consolidating IRAs Question

[multiham]

My wife has the following 4 IRA accounts at Fidelity.
Rollover IRA
Traditional IRA
Rollover IRA
Roth IRA

Is there any disadvantage to combining the 2 Rollover and one Traditional IRA into 1 account?
Does it matter which account I combine them into (In other words should I move the 2 Rollover IRA's into the Traditional IRA account?
We will not touch the Roth.

Trying to combine accounts so we have the necessary $ to buy Premium Class mutual funds at Fidelity.

Thank you.

[Duckie]

Is there any disadvantage to combining the 2 Rollover and one Traditional IRA into 1 account?

No.

Does it matter which account I combine them into (In other words should I move the 2 Rollover IRA's into the Traditional IRA account?

I'd choose to move to one of the Rollover IRAs because if she ever wants to roll that account to an employer plan, some plans are fussy about the source. The IRS doesn't care anymore (it used to) but some plans still only want funds rolled from former employer plans. With the title "Rollover IRA" it makes getting past the fussiness easier.

[multiham]

Thank you!

[multiham]

Just got off the phone with Fidelity and now I'm really confused. They are telling me that if I consolidate into one of my rollover IRA's that I can only have Fidelity funds in that account. If I consolidate into my Traditional IRA, I can have any funds in there. Does this make sense? I'm planning to call again tomorrow and speak to someone different my customer service rep today had to continuously put me on hold to ask someone questions.

[aristotelian]

Just got off the phone with Fidelity and now I'm really confused. They are telling me that if I consolidate into one of my rollover IRA's that I can only have Fidelity funds in that account. If I consolidate into my Traditional IRA, I can have any funds in there. Does this make sense? I'm planning to call again tomorrow and speak to someone different my customer service rep today had to continuously put me on hold to ask someone questions.

Does Fidelity separate brokerage and mutual fund accounts like Vanguard used to do? Does your rollover contain only Fidelity?

[multiham]

Not sure if they separate brokerage and mutual fund accounts. However, what is really strange is one of my rollover IRA's contains non Fidelity mutual funds.

[Duckie]

Not sure if they separate brokerage and mutual fund accounts. However, what is really strange is one of my rollover IRA's contains non Fidelity mutual funds.

Well then, roll the other Rollover IRA into the one that holds non-Fidelity funds. Once accomplished try to move the TIRA there.

[Alan S.]

Just got off the phone with Fidelity and now I'm really confused. They are telling me that if I consolidate into one of my rollover IRA's that I can only have Fidelity funds in that account. If I consolidate into my Traditional IRA, I can have any funds in there. Does this make sense? I'm planning to call again tomorrow and speak to someone different my customer service rep today had to continuously put me on hold to ask someone questions.

Make sense? No, not in the slightest.

You might want to keep the rollover IRA separate from non rollover IRAs if you live in a state that does not provide broad creditor protection and all your IRAs might exceed 1.4 mm plus inflation adjustments. Of course, where you live now may not be the state you live in later on.

[celia]

Is there any disadvantage to combining the 2 Rollover and one Traditional IRA into 1 account?

Yes, if your wife is still working. If she should get (or has) a job with a 401k with good investment options, she might want to roll the rollover accounts back into a 401k (because they came from an employer plan). Once she mixes them with her traditional IRA (to which she contributed directly), some 401k plans won't accept the co-mingled money. However, she can combine the two rollovers into one, since they came from employer plans.

Trying to combine accounts so we have the necessary $ to buy Premium Class mutual funds at Fidelity.

If she is holding the same asset in more than one account, why not put all the shares of a fund in one account?
For example, if she holds:
$6K of fund A and $8K of fund B in a rollover and
$5K of fund A and $5K of fund B in her traditional IRA,

why not exchange $5K of fund A in the rollover to fund B while
exchanging $5K of fund B in the traditional to fund A?
That way she will have at least $10K of the same fund in each account to qualify for Premium shares while keeping her asset allocation the same. (Or take this opportunity to rebalance.)