TRowe Price problem

[Happy prose]

Hi, hoping someone call tell me where to go next. My husband had an employer sponsored 401k with TRowe Price. He has since retired, company moved, but he just left the money there. There is also another account listed on the account from a long ago employer, but he never participated, so that one just says zero. The most current account had about $50k. 

problem- he signed onto account Friday, and the account with $50k is missing; it only lists the company that he never contributed with. We called TRowe Price, and they can't find it. They are looking into it. If this isn't resolved, what agency to I contact for help?

Thanks for any help you can give. This is rather upsetting!

[teen persuasion]

Contact the old employer. They probably switched providers for the 401k.

DH left a 401k at a former employer, and every few years they'd transition accounts to a new provider, it was a PITA.

[Happy prose]

Jun 13, 2022 12:35:43 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Contact the old employer. They probably switched providers for the 401k.

DH left a 401k at a former employer, and every few years they'd transition accounts to a new provider, it was a PITA.

Thank you, will try right now.

[Happy prose]

The company didn't switch providers. Now TRP found ut, but said ut was 'suppressed' in error. He said it should appear in account in 5-7 business days. So we wait. 

[CCL]

That seems like a long time to wait, but at least they found their error and are working to correct it.

I think I'd move my account somewhere else, like Fidelity or Vanguard, though. I wouldn't be comfortable leaving it with a company that loses $50k and takes a week to find it.

[teen persuasion]

We learned the hard way that it's better to move it somewhere you have control and will check on it more often.

When we got notice that DH's old 401k was switching providers yet again, we decided it was time to roll it to a tIRA at Vanguard. Unfortunately, we didn't get the ball rolling soon enough to do it before the transition, so we had to wait out the blackout period. Once that was over (months), and we got a letter from the new provider, we read it closely and noticed some of his total was not fully vested - it had been fully vested when the company went out of business. Contacted the new provider - they couldn't do anything, that was the data they got in the transfer - have the employer fix it. How do you contact an employer that went out of business? Well, the 401k lived on because a parent company was hosting it - DH called them, and was lucky to reach a former coworker who'd transferred, and knew the circumstances of the shutdown vesting. She got it reported and fixed, and we rolled the whole balance out to a tIRA.

If we hadn't been looking closely to move it, I would have missed that unvested bit. Another move or two and it might have been impossible to fix.

[Happy prose]

And….the money appeared today! Whew! My husband plans to move it for sure. I'll tell him to get moving on that. Thanks everyone!

[Value Buy]

Jun 15, 2022 16:54:16 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

And….the money appeared today! Whew! My husband plans to move it for sure. I'll tell him to get moving on that. Thanks everyone!

You probably do not even have to move it. Just sign in every few months to look at the balance so there is activity on his part.  I imagine it was suppressed due to inactivity on his part, but the company should have tried to contact you by email or postage mail before doing the suppression. Myself, I can not fathom looking at the account for a long time.
Were you getting quarterly or year end statements?

[teen persuasion]

Jun 21, 2022 8:34:08 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Jun 15, 2022 16:54:16 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

And….the money appeared today! Whew! My husband plans to move it for sure. I'll tell him to get moving on that. Thanks everyone!

You probably do not even have to move it. Just sign in every few months to look at the balance so there is activity on his part.  I imagine it was suppressed due to inactivity on his part, but the company should have tried to contact you by email or postage mail before doing the suppression. Myself, I can not fathom looking at the account for a long time.
Were you getting quarterly or year end statements?

Logging in does not constitute activity.  Nor does making automatic deposits, surprisingly.

DH received notice that his HSA account was going to be escheated by the state due to inactivity.  His account got regular biweekly payroll deposits and I logged in regularly.  Didn't count - he needed to either visit the bank or withdraw something to count as "activity".  The notice came with a form to sign to push off the escheatment; that apparently counted as "activity", too.

[Happy prose]

Jun 21, 2022 8:34:08 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Jun 15, 2022 16:54:16 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

And….the money appeared today! Whew! My husband plans to move it for sure. I'll tell him to get moving on that. Thanks everyone!

You probably do not even have to move it. Just sign in every few months to look at the balance so there is activity on his part.  I imagine it was suppressed due to inactivity on his part, but the company should have tried to contact you by email or postage mail before doing the suppression. Myself, I can not fathom looking at the account for a long time.
Were you getting quarterly or year end statements?

Yes, he gets quarterly statements, and he logged in maybe a month prior.

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2022 9:15:16 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

DH received notice that his HSA account was going to be escheated by the state due to inactivity.  His account got regular biweekly payroll deposits and I logged in regularly.  Didn't count - he needed to either visit the bank or withdraw something to count as "activity".  The notice came with a form to sign to push off the escheatment; that apparently counted as "activity", too.

Wow. States have different escheat laws but I know they LOVE having property turned over to them. (Planet Money had a great podcast on the subject.) I have an FSA at Fidelity that I haven't touched for years (probably since I moved it over 8 years ago when I retired) but since my other accounts at Fidelity are VERY active maybe that protects it.

It's good to check missingmoney.com every year or so to make sure nothing of yours has been turned over to the state. DS recovered about $1,000 from his late Dad's accounts- just checks he hadn't cashed and small deposits in bank accounts. He had to jump through some bureaucratic hoops but eventually got the money.