Extended system outage - T Rowe Price Deferred Compensation accounts

[lgerla]

Just a heads up -

I am expecting a January 2024 disbursement from my T. Rowe Price Deferred Compensation plan through my former employer.
The system has been offline on the website for more than 2 weeks with a "system outage" message displayed. I called a representative today to place a trade for me, essentially moving funds to Vanguard money market to prepare for the Jan. disbursement.

I was shocked to find out that not only can the rep not see my current shares or account value on the back-end, but they can accept a trade only with the proviso that it will go through at some later date when the "outage" is fixed.

I have all quarterly statements so I know what the account value should be. Needless to say, I did not place a trade request for some unknown date (limit orders not accepted). The rep is supposed to be researching and calling me back about the ETA of fixing the outage, and expected plan for January payouts.

[McQ]

Just a heads up -

I am expecting a January 2024 disbursement from my T. Rowe Price Deferred Compensation plan through my former employer.
The system has been offline on the website for more than 2 weeks with a "system outage" message displayed. I called a representative today to place a trade for me, essentially moving funds to Vanguard money market to prepare for the Jan. disbursement.

I was shocked to find out that not only can the rep not see my current shares or account value on the back-end, but they can accept a trade only with the proviso that it will go through at some later date when the "outage" is fixed.

I have all quarterly statements so I know what the account value should be. Needless to say, I did not place a trade request for some unknown date (limit orders not accepted). The rep is supposed to be researching and calling me back about the ETA of fixing the outage, and expected plan for January payouts.

Also a multi-day outage at another DCP plan provider, Nolan Financial. That suggests there's a shared custodian behind the scenes that got into trouble.

I wonder if that large Chinese bank that was hacked the other week had a US subsidiary offering custodial services? My understanding of DCP plans is that there is no account holding securities. Rather, there is a calculation of employer obligation, an algorithm applied to database entries. When you say 'sell 100 shares of the Vanguard 500 index fund and put in the money market,' the algorithm performs an operation on your data entries so that the 'value' of your account begins to update with that money market fund performance. No shares or money changed hands; just an update to the database. Only when you disburse is there money, which appears because the DCP plan provider billed the employer in real time for those funds.

Easy to imagine that a specialized back office gets used by DCP providers to do that work ... once the database gets hacked, could be devilishly difficult to get the correct entries back.

[lgerla]

Thanks for the data point on Nolan Financial and the very plausible explanation, which tracks with the message below about the "recordkeeping platform" from the website.

The message is:
Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan Outage & Balance Information
We are experiencing a service outage with respect to our nonqualified recordkeeping platform. Balances reflected are as of 11/1/2023. We are actively working to restore service and update account balances as quickly as possible.

On my call yesterday, the rep was able to give me my "balance" as of 11/1, but did not have shares or price presumably because, as you say, they are not actual purchased shares. I never knew this. I am glad I have pdf statements.

[sycamore]

It's also being reported here: https://www.plansponsor.com/infosys-cyb ... platforms/.

Ascensus and its subsidiary, Newport Group Inc., have had their nonqualified retirement plan services affected by a cyberattack on business processes firm Infosys McCamish Systems LLC.
...
Infosys BPM Ltd., based in Bangalore, India, released a statement [https://www.infosys.com/investors/docum ... ov2023.pdf] November 3 that its U.S. subsidiary, Infosys McCamish, had been made aware of a “cybersecurity event resulting in non-availability of certain applications and systems in IMS.” The firm noted it is working with a “leading cybersecurity products provider” to resolve the issue.

[Longdog]

This is pretty terrifying!

[ResearchMed]

This is pretty terrifying!

This is even a "worser case scenario" than we had in mind when we decided to *always* keep money with at least two different vendors.

And likewise, at least two different credit cards (on different networks such as Amex and Visa).

Our main worry wasn't having our money stolen in some scam, and although that is certainly something we try to avoid, there's always that little worry...
It was having some internal glitch on the vendor's side, leaving customers simply... waiting...

I don't see the risk of this type of outage (or whatever else is "next") getting lower in the future, alas.

RM

[gs2offroad]

Same issue appears to be affecting Merrill/BofA:

"Nonqualified Deferred Compensation functions are currently limited due to an issue at a vendor. Account balances on the home page and investment holdings page are based on number of shares held as of close of business on 11/1/2023 and the market closing price for those shares as of the most recent business day"

[sycamore]

FYI, the situation is also mentioned in another thread viewtopic.php?t=416293.

[anagram]

This is pretty terrifying!

Nothing to worry about.

Data protection and cybersecurity are of utmost importance to us.

If InfoSys is responsible for the data protection this is terrifying.

[mjg]

I have a deferred comp plan administered by Newport (two of ten disbursements made thus far). Just logged in now. Landing page has a pretty small note of the "issue" that I would have not even noticed if I hadn't read this thread. My next disbursement is July 2024 so I'll trust it will be fixed by then - but very surprised that for something it says has been out since 11/2/2023 pretty surprised that the issue still exists.

[McQ]

Thanks for the data point on Nolan Financial and the very plausible explanation, which tracks with the message below about the "recordkeeping platform" from the website.

The message is:
Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan Outage & Balance Information
We are experiencing a service outage with respect to our nonqualified recordkeeping platform. Balances reflected are as of 11/1/2023. We are actively working to restore service and update account balances as quickly as possible.

On my call yesterday, the rep was able to give me my "balance" as of 11/1, but did not have shares or price presumably because, as you say, they are not actual purchased shares. I never knew this. I am glad I have pdf statements.

Nolan Financial back up as of a few minutes ago here on December 4th, check your T. Rowe account.

TIAA life not back up as of right now, so no guarantee.

[lgerla]

T. Rowe Price is back as of noon today. I had called this morning for an update, and there was none. Then the rep I spoke with called me back and said it was good to go. I just made the trade I wanted to make so all good.

[edge]

Yes, its back up in all of its weird glitchy glory. I am constantly amazed by how odd this platform is.

T. Rowe Price is back as of noon today. I had called this morning for an update, and there was none. Then the rep I spoke with called me back and said it was good to go. I just made the trade I wanted to make so all good.