IRA Close by Custodian
I had a Roll-Over IRA account in Merrill from many years ago and didn’t receive any statements from Merrill during all these years. Few weeks ago when I was going through my mail I received a premature distribution check from Merrill. When I called Merrill they told me that they were trying to reach me to update my profile info and since they couldn’t reach me they closed the account deducted 10% and mailed me the balanced check. I am within the 60 days period to roll over the funds to another IRA account but my issue is that for 2024 I have used once a year indirect rollover option. So, it seems that I can not deposit the funds to another Roll-Over IRA. Buy it seems that I can deposit the funds directly into a Roth IRA and therefore convert IRA funds to Roth and there is an exception to the once a year rule when converting IRA funds to Roth IRA. I have contacted Fidelity and they told me that they can do a Mid-Air Roth Coversion by first opening a Roth IRA account for me then directly depositing the Merril check that I haven’t deposited together with a balance check from me for the remaining 10% and depositing both to the Roth account without having to deposit them first to a Roll-Over IRA account. I know that I have to pay the income tax on the conversion but I wanted to make sure that by taking this route I would avoid the early withdrawal penalty and the conversion is being done correctly. Thank you
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Fri, 2024-11-22 15:27
Yes, that will work. The conversion will be taxable but no penalty and preserves the assets in a superior type of IRA, whereas if you kept the distribution there would be tax, AND penalty if you are under 59.5. A conversion is one of the escape hatches after the one allowed 60 day rollover has been used. Another possible way to deal with this is to replace the 10% and roll the total to a qualified employer plan such as a 401k if you have access to such a plan. That will eliminate any tax on the distribution. Like conversions, a rollover to a qualified plan is not subject to the one rollover limitation.