billyeasy

I spoke with one of my 401k providers (Merrill Lynch), and they informed me that if I move out of the USA, they do not support individuals living abroad. They stated that my funds would have to be sold unless I can find an alternative provider. I'm curious if others have encountered this situation and, if so, what did you do? It feels surprising to me that a company as large as Merrill Lynch has this position.

durham_lad

My wife, son and I have all been in a similar situation. The solution we chose was to rollover our 401ks to IRAs with a brokerage that supports overseas customers. We chose Vanguard but I’m sure other big brokerages offer similar support to overseas customers.

Rolling over a 401k is a non taxable event but has to be done or started before leaving the USA because creating a new IRA account from overseas is not possible I believe. Our son left the USA to move to the UK 7 days after quitting his job but initiated the rollover immediately after he quit and it completed after he was back in the UK.

London1966

This is also what i have been told with one of my 401k providers. Be carful what you do and do it before you leave the states, because if they sell your funds and give you the money you will have to pay tax on it and it could send you into a different much higher tax level.

It'sridiculouse really in this day and age when everything is going online - who would care where you liveas long as you fill your tax forms in. I'm not retired yet but I've started planning for it and have a pension fundin the UK that the provider its with doesn't support drawdown scheme, but because I don't live in the UK trying to find a provider that does to someone who has a forgien address is near impossible. It's my money but I can't do what Iwant with it.

Brendan

dunroving

Not this particular situation, but in another context, I found that no longer having a US address caused me problems with TIAA-CREF. I wanted, for example, to set up a Roth IRA to roll my 403(b) into, and they wouldn't let me do that without a US address. I could have done it easily before I left the US (doh), and once it was set up, I could have conducted transfers from the UK.. Also, I can't remember if it was this same issue or a taxation issue where they kept citing The Patriot Act, in terms of me being a non-resident.

I even made an appointment to go to their head office, as I intended to travel to Charlotte (from the UK) for a conference. I caught a taxi all the way there and it was an enclosed "campus" like Fort Knox, with a security post and everything. I had assumed it would just be a regular office building. They said they wouldn't let me in without having a passport! After an hour, eventually they agreed to send a security guard to escort me to an outbuilding to meet the person I had an appointment with (I even showed them the email that I had received with the appointment reminder). The security guard sat in on the appointment, and the TIAA-CREF staff treated me like a criminal.

None of this may be relevant to your specific issues, but the bottom line message I'm trying to convey is, "Look into as much as you can, and do as much as you can, BEFORE you leave the US!"

billyeasy

Thank you, everyone. I can't tell you how much future stress your responses have saved me. It's insane. I have reached out to Fidelity, with whom I have an IRA, to see if they will "support" me when abroad. If not, I will go to Vanguard.

billyeasy

Sorry for your experience, very frustrating. I am hoping to move all but one of my 401(k)s into my Fidelity Rollover IRA if they will have me and also open an account with Vanguard with a rollover, treating it like a fallback account.

billyeasy

It's 2024, and it's insane the hoops one has to go through. The laws and regulations around this need an overhaul; you are right, it's our money, we went through hard labor for it.

billyeasy

Thank you so much. Very useful. Did you have to keep a US bank account to move money from your SS and IRA into before you could transfer it to the UK?

durham_lad

Yes I did keep a US bank account but last year I opened a Wise USD account with US routing number and account number. I linked that account to my IRA account at Vanguard and now put distributions into it immediately before transferring them to my UK bank account. It works great. My wife has done the same.

billyeasy

Amazing, thanks, will look into that.