Vanguard 403b and 403b Roth

[Vfunds]

Hello,

Years ago I had a 403b with Vanguard before we were forced to move to Fidelity. I left the funds I already had in the Vanguard account.

Now, we are again allowed to contribute to Vanguard and, for the first time, we can do a Roth 403b, so I set that up. My first contribution just showed up.

My dilemma is that the 403b contributions and 403b Roth contributions are not differentiated. I just got off the phone with a Vanguard representative and they said there is no way they can differentiate. This seems to pose a problem when I retire and start taking distributions. Having had issues with Vanguard support in the past, I thought I would ask here to see if anyone knows differently.

Thank you for any help,

Ron

[pizzy]

Are you saying that they deposit both traditional 403b contributions and roth 403b contributions in the same account?

[Geologist]

I'm sure that Vanguard is keeping track of the pre-tax and Roth contributions and earnings separately because legally they have to. It may be that what is displayed to you doesn't show this.

While I don't have a Vanguard 403b, I have a TIAA 403b and parts of that account do not differentiate the pre-tax and Roth portions. Oddly enough, this primarily involves my investment in a Vanguard bond fund. The monthly dividends (and capital gains distributions, when they happen) are just shown as a total for both types. This is true not only for me but for the TIAA representatives when I call in. The representatives have to put in an order to some backroom people who have access to a different computer system who can disgorge this information. I suspect a parallel situation exists at Vanguard.

[1TheGame]

Until recently I had some funds in a Vanguard 403b Roth. In most of the web pages that display your balances, the pre-tax and Roth funds are mixed together, which is very annoying. But you are not getting a correct answer from the rep (based on my recent experiences I'm not surprised). There is a way to get to a web page that separates out the pre-tax and Roth balances in each fund.

It is not easy to locate this page. For me I have to navigate to the "Retirement Plan" section.

Then under "Manage My Money" click on "Investments"

Then on the bottom click on "See my investments" in red

Then at the bottom click on the link in

"A lot of great things are in the works for our new site. For now, you can find the info you're looking for here."

Now you will see a table with the funds/amounts you are invested in.

At the top of this page you can select "View by:", with the choices being "Fund", "Asset Class" and "Source of Contribution". By default View By "Funds" is selected. Click on "Source of Contribution" and it will display a separate table for the funds that are "EMPLOYEE BEFORE TAX" and "EMPLOYEE ROTH". This is what you want.

Wonderful, huh! I'm pretty sure that the path to get to this page has changed over time.

Then

[Vfunds]

1TheGame, I just saw your post after my last post. That is exactly what I am looking for - it does differentiate the roth from the non roth there! Thank you so much for the info - you're correct in that it is a convoluted way to get there.

I am disappointed in the web page and the Vanguard reps. It should be easy to see this on the main account page and, regardless, the rep should be aware of this, but was not. This is my second bad interaction with a Vanguard rep in the past few months.

Thank you all for your help - it is greatly appreciated.

[Vfunds]

1TheGame, I just saw your post after my last post. That is exactly what I am looking for - it does differentiate the roth from the non roth there! Thank you so much for the info - you're correct in that it is a convoluted way to get there.

I am disappointed in the web page and the Vanguard reps. It should be easy to see this on the main account page and, regardless, the rep should be aware of this, but was not. This is my second bad interaction with a Vanguard rep in the past few months.

Thank you all for your help - it is greatly appreciated.

[breakaway]

I have the same issue in my work Fidelity account. 403b and Roth 403b are mixed and the only way to see the diff is to do something similar to what 1TheGame posted. Going to make it interesting when I eventually leave this job and want to roll that over to Vanguard.

[1TheGame]

Vfunds, I'm happy to help! I've found the discourse on Bogleheads to be tremendously beneficial over the years, with an army of experts lined up to provide informative answers to questions on almost any topic. Your topic/question was narrow enough so that I finally had an opportunity to make a useful contribution