# Taxed to pretax IRA transfer mistake



## Kartracer (Jan 27, 2019)

Greetings all....
Without going into details here is my problem.  About 15 years ago, my wife went to a local investment firm and opened up an account with them using her saving account.  In 2006 we discover some fraudulent activity by one of the investment firm's employees so she had her account closed and had them transfer and open new Vanguard IRA account.  In hindsight this was an error by the investment firm by transferring funds from TAXED account to PRE-TAXED IRA account.   Unfortunately, she does not realize the transfer error until now that she is retired and getting ready to initiate IRA RMD.  So, we called Vanguard and the original investment firm to no avail.  Are there any recourse to remedy this costly error?  Positive comments/suggestions anyone?  Thanks


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## mathjak107 (Jan 27, 2019)

15 years later ???? good luck ... the only hope is seeing if the irs will  cut you some slack ... these are the kinds of things that happen unfortunately  when people don't monitor things   or take the time to make sure things are done right .
so many people don't want to take the time or have an interest in learning about anything financial  yet these things are so important  .
.


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## OneEyedDiva (Jan 31, 2019)

mathjak107 said:


> 15 years later ???? good luck ... the only hope is seeing if the irs will  cut you some slack ... these are the kinds of things that happen unfortunately  when people don't monitor things   or take the time to make sure things are done right .
> so many people don't want to take the time or have an interest in learning about anything financial  yet these things are so important  .
> .


You're so right Mathjak. I have a friend who's quite comfortable (financially).  But he's lazy and lets his broker(s) handle everything. During a period seems his broker just made him broker...so he fired him. But he does not keep up with finacial matters at all.  He doesn't know which investments he has, his portfolio balance...nothing. He just says "I don't understand all that stuff" and entrusts his brokers.  Keeping adequate track of one's finances surely does take time.


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## fmdog44 (Feb 1, 2019)

I'll add my very recent story (two weeks ago). My broker had my SEP IRA and the conservative portfolio did not fare well over the past five years. I called them and asked if I could get them to stop directing the trades and leave all positions as is and if that would eliminate the very high expense for trading in it. They replied yes and said the charge would no longer be applied. I checked my account two days later to see they sold 100% of my portfolio moving it in to a money market. 

When I called they simply said they were sorry and would try to remedy. I told them I would get back to them in a day or so. When I called I told them to close my account and the person said he would cut a check that day. One week later nothing I my mail box. Again I called and got the to send the check UPS and it arrived two days later. This is one of the major trading firms and I never thought this would happen but good reddens.


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## Butterfly (Feb 4, 2019)

fmdog44 said:


> I'll add my very recent story (two weeks ago). My broker had my SEP IRA and the conservative portfolio did not fare well over the past five years. I called them and asked if I could get them to stop directing the trades and leave all positions as is and if that would eliminate the very high expense for trading in it. They replied yes and said the charge would no longer be applied. I checked my account two days later to see they sold 100% of my portfolio moving it in to a money market. When I called they simply said they were sorry and would try to remedy. I told them I would get back to them in a day or so. When I called I told them to close my account and the person said he would cut a check that day. One week later nothing I my mail box. Again I called and got the to send the check UPS and it arrived two days later. This is one of the major trading firms and I never thought this would happen but good reddens.



So is this going to cause you to take a tax hit??  I mean by adding the whole sum of the SEP to income for this year?


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