If 457 plan is like 401k, the rollover has to be initiated by the originating firm not the recipient firm. For some reason, it is treated differently than any other transfer.
Hopefully, I have to the roller from 401k to cash and then transfer to Vanguards when I retire. I’ve been 75% in cash for my husband’s account and 67% cash for my account for a while now. I was hoping the market would be up for the rest but it hasn’t so I’m sort of regretting not selling when I had the chance.
Regarding Hilary’s proposal, Kudlow has an article regarding it’s an inconceivable stupid tax.
Kudlow: Hillary’s inconceivably stupid tax http://www.cnbc.com/id/102864205
^ but Kudlow is pretty much against any tax and all government regulation.
He is my kind of guy. 
^^ UNTIL the stuff hit the fan. I remember Kudlow’s panic when HIS friends were losing money. Then it was okay to socialize the losses.
I’ll stop now before I get political, but you’ll find his picture in the dictionary next to hypocrite.
You’ll Hilary’s picture in the same spot then. Hypocrite is also the best term to describe Hillary.
@AttorneyMother, thanks for the link. Not sure what the following from the Fidelity link means:
“If you are moving 457(b) assets, please be aware that governmental 457(b) assets must be moved into a governmental 457(b) plan” (sorry, I don’t know how to do the box thing), have to call them.
When I contacted the plan administrator a while back, they confirmed that my 457 is eligible to be rolled over to an IRA, so I hope that’s the case. I will definitely follow up again to confirm. The worry I have is my former employer (a municipal government), their HR is pitiful, they sit on paperwork all the time and they don’t know what they are doing!!!
@lxnayBob, to me, the rollover requires the liquidation of my current 457, i.e. selling, which is what bothers me. I almost never SELL anything (makes terrible financial sense, I know). I don’t have to touch the money until RMD which is over 10 years away. I had watched my 457 value cut by half during market downturns, but over time it has gained back what I lost plus more. Expense ratios are very high with the 457, also not so great fund options, that’s more of a reason to roll over to an IRA (that’s what I tell myself, but just have to get off the couch and do it).
@Iglooo, I think you are right.
Thanks.
@Hopeful820, I have 0 experience rolling over 457b plan assets (no government employment for anyone in family). My only suggestion is that you first get clarification from Fidelity (if that’s where you want your $ to go) about that language and get a roadmap of the steps you need to take.
The first time doing this is the hardest. Though in my experience with Fidelity rolling over one of my old 401ks and my H’s old 403b, it was done very smoothly. They want your assets under their management.
Also, don’t be afraid to sell if you are going to reinvest right away, especially if you are going to cut expenses. You should only be out of the market for a short time while the money is in transit. There are no tax consequences when trading inside the plan or IRA, as you know. If you are unhappy with the investment choices inside the 457b, do not be emotionally attached to those choices. Hopefully, the better options in your new IRA and the compounding benefit of lower E/Rs over the next many years should add up.
And you can technically do all of this from your couch. 
That’s a good point. What does Hilary do to stop people trading in their IRA account? Another tax coming?
@IxnayBob, where is Vanguard’s Financial Engines software? Is in within one’s online account information? Is it good? Thank you for the feedback.
“Hopefully, I have to the roller from 401k to cash and then transfer to Vanguards when I retire. I’ve been 75% in cash for my husband’s account and 67% cash for my account for a while now. I was hoping the market would be up for the rest but it hasn’t so I’m sort of regretting not selling when I had the chance.”
Wow, that is a lot of cash. I think I only am about 5% in cash, and every time the market takes a plunge, I move more of the cash into a large growth fund, Vanguard Primecap. Eventually I intend to have no cash. Kind of risky, I know, but we’re not planning to access this money until we have to take RMD’s, if possible (18 years).
It is but I can’t do direct trustee to trustee transfer. The market is highly valued, could go another 5-10% at most this year. But it’s been fluctuated. So at most I might loose 5-10% upside.
@AttorneyMother, I’m of two minds abut Financial Engines software. It is better than nothing, but I worry that, being based on historical data, it is too optimistic. I’ll grant that I am borderline crazily conservative, but I would not want to count on future gains matching recent gains.
I use ESPlanner as my mainstay, putting pessimistic numbers in. I do use Financial Engines as a sanity check. You can put in non-Vanguard accounts also.
On the “My Accounts” page, on the right side under “Account Maintenance” is where Financial Engines shows up.
@busdriver11, PRIMECAP has been a great fund. I’m not ordinarily a fan of active funds, but I will keep buying it (to the max they allow).
ETA: I’ve even got the kids in it
@IxnayBob, thanks for the information.
I understand about being conservative. And the limitations of historical data. So, I can discount the results.
I’ll have to go back to ESPlanner and look at that again. Last time I looked it was too much data (?) for me to make sense of it. The real data I need to get a grip on is discretionary spending which, I note, probably means that we tend to exercise our discretion a bit too much. But, I’m going more with a carpe diem attitude for the past year or so.
@AttorneyMother, I find ESPlanner useful because if my discretionary spending is well below the suggestion, and the Monte Carlo shows that we could live quite comfortably on the 1% likelihood outcome, I relax. That’s not to say that DW relaxes, because her approach is to buy what she wants and then make a ****ton of money; so she uses the stress as energy.
The one response I hate when I say she should retire is: “do we have enough?” I say that’s a bit like asking “how long is a string?” I say we can fly Coach wherever we want, upgrade to Business every now and then if we want to splurge, but we’ll probably never fly Private on our own dime. It’s good enough for me. As I’ve lamented in the past, I think I have another 3-6 years to wait.
I got sidetracked there, but I think ESPlanner is great. As a retired software developer, I am beyond impressed with the work that went into it. I think they have an option to pay extra for guidance. I’ll check later.
IxnayBob, wish I had my kids in Primecap. But as a closed fund, can’t do that now.
I have PRIMECAP in the early 90s, it’s not an index fund. That’s why it’s important to decide for yourself against the mantra of index fund. When the news mentions the average active fund does not do better than index fund, it’s important to know the emphasis is on a average.
@IxnayBob , my napkin calculations show:
$X / year of spending (within current lifestyle)
I multiply $X by 33 years (the Bogleheaded factor, IIRC)
$X multiplied by 33 < gross Portfolio Value (not discounted for taxes – I’ll work on that later because I have to look thoroughly at unrealized LTCG and who knows what tax changes we might be in for)
Then we are OK.
If I reduce $X by 80%, then we are more than OK.
I guess the difference is that you’re not in need of a hobby.