The Josh K school of finance
Having recently graduated from the Josh K school of finance, I was pleasantly surprised to receive my check from JP Morgan for the cash out value of my 401K.
The above is an inside joke with my fellow co-workers. Since our former employer is no longer around, the 401K program they sponsored is being done away with. You have several choices, including cashing out, or rolling it over to another 401K or IRA.
Some of my former co-workers announced they were cashing out. The more intelligent among us, spent the next couple of weeks trying like heck to talk them out of it. Josh became the poster boy for poor financial planning (oh, the yarns one could spin on this account), and thus we spent most of our time trying to convince him of his errant thinking. I honestly don't know how successfully we were.
At any rate, I requested the disbursement paper work from JP Morgan, and not wanting to mess up the transaction, had my financial advisor complete the forms, so that the money be transferred without incident into my IRA.
I opened the check from JPM yesterday afternoon, and was mortified to see they had withheld federal taxes... meaning they sent me a cash-out check. I immediately called to correct the situation.
The phone conversation included phrases like:
"I can't see any reason why we would have sent you the check."
"This happens all the time."
"We'll fix this."
"We'll correct our reporting of this to the IRS."
I'm supposed to receive a new check for the roll-over amount. Anybody wanna place bets on the likelihood of me getting audited by the IRS next year, when I don't claim this on my taxes?
The above is an inside joke with my fellow co-workers. Since our former employer is no longer around, the 401K program they sponsored is being done away with. You have several choices, including cashing out, or rolling it over to another 401K or IRA.
Some of my former co-workers announced they were cashing out. The more intelligent among us, spent the next couple of weeks trying like heck to talk them out of it. Josh became the poster boy for poor financial planning (oh, the yarns one could spin on this account), and thus we spent most of our time trying to convince him of his errant thinking. I honestly don't know how successfully we were.
At any rate, I requested the disbursement paper work from JP Morgan, and not wanting to mess up the transaction, had my financial advisor complete the forms, so that the money be transferred without incident into my IRA.
I opened the check from JPM yesterday afternoon, and was mortified to see they had withheld federal taxes... meaning they sent me a cash-out check. I immediately called to correct the situation.
The phone conversation included phrases like:
"I can't see any reason why we would have sent you the check."
"This happens all the time."
"We'll fix this."
"We'll correct our reporting of this to the IRS."
I'm supposed to receive a new check for the roll-over amount. Anybody wanna place bets on the likelihood of me getting audited by the IRS next year, when I don't claim this on my taxes?
posted by Rich B | 9:27 AM
2 Comments:
I would say that obviously you should have double checked your financial advisors work.
I also requested and received a check from my 401K to roll over to my IRA.
I filled out the form. Checked it 3 times and sent it in in a week I have a check made out to me FBO Merrill Lynch with no taxes withheld.
There was a place to mark on the form to withhold taxes. I am sure it was a mistake in filling out the form.
No mistake on the form. The person I spoke with at agreed the form was correctly filled out, and could not explain why I received a check with taxes withheld.
Post a Comment
<< Home