What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

 Did you hear the one about how a rollover delay could cost you $76,000?

Hard to believe? Well, there’s a reason. To get to that number, the folks at PensionBee had to make not just one, but a series of worst-case assumptions. To get to $76,000, you have to assume:

• that you are waiting for a $100,000 check…
• that you get out of the market at exactly the wrong time — a low point right before an extraordinary market surge (that you miss, of course)…
• that continues unabated while you’re “out” of the market… (cause markets only go up)
  • oh, and you’re assumed to be out of the market for EIGHT WEEKS because it’s assumed that your rollover check got lost in the mail, and you had to have it reissued (during which, of course, the markets continue to rise)...
• Oh, and THEN you take that market uptick that you missed (cause, as we all know, markets NEVER go down)...
• 
  and then assume a 7% positive return thereafter on the money you missed (with fees of just 0.85%)… compound it for 30 years (because, apparently, you requested that distribution several decades ago… and voila! That rollover delay, compounded by a series of worst-case assumptions — well, at that point, it’s just math.

Now, that’s not to say it couldn’t possibly happen — but I think we can all admit it’s exaggerated for effect (clicks, anyone). In other words, it assumes the worst that could happen.

Roll ‘Plays’

Now, in fairness, at least PensionBee was honest enough to share their assumptions (and provide some alternate outcomes that were less severe). But, speaking from experience, the rollover process still…sucks. 

I actually contemplated rolling over my 401(k) accounts two different times over the years before the “finality” of retirement pushed me past my reluctance. Granted, in the 20-odd some years since I first contemplated (and struggled with) a rollover, things have improved (more on that in a minute). That said, EVERYBODY (and we’re talking three major 401(k) providers here) insisted on cutting a physical check[i] and mailing it to me (two checks, actually — Roths are distributed separately). 

Now, I don’t know about you, but mail service no longer seems to be as reliable as it once was. And the idea of checks of that size (and probably looking like checks) being dropped off in the mail — well, it gave me pause.[ii] Oh, I was “allowed” to pay a pretty significant premium for “expedited” delivery — but though we’re talking about rates in excess of what Federal Express or UPS might charge, we weren’t talking about delivery that was truly special. 

As it turned out, the checks did arrive (and yes, I paid the premium), leaving me out of the market for about a week. Mitigating that was that my chosen IRA provider allowed me to do a mobile deposit of those checks (Yay!), so at least I was spared the dilemma (and sleepless nights) of putting those in the mail…again.[iii]

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how much the rollover process has improved over the past 20 years. I was able to do it all without sitting on hold for interminable periods for the “next available operator” while listening to product pitches (or bad elevator music) — without talking to a single person, in fact, much less people from different firms (sending and receiving). 

I realize there is an opportunity for fraud with wire transfers — but surely no more than with the antiquated process of physically producing and dropping off checks with the United States Postal Service. And, honestly, what’s being charged for “expedited” processing (and with separate charges for Roth and non-Roth accounts) struck me as — well, excessive — certainly for what it seemed to provide (one hates to think of the non-special alternative).    

That said, the reality seems to be that our industry is (still) ever so much better at taking in money than in sending it “out.” Indeed, the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if that is deliberate. 

It may not be the worst that could happen. But there’s certainly room for improvement.

• Nevin E. Adams, JD

 

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[i] That is, unless you want to roll it over to THEIR IRA — in which case, electronic transfer was an option.

[ii] During this process, one of the insurance checks related to my mother’s estate — that looked like a check — was “misdelivered” to the wrong house. Fortunately, I have honest neighbors.

[iii] The New York Times recently profiled the experience of a participant that was not so fortunate — though his check got to him, it was the forwarded checks to his IRA provider that got stolen. See https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/business/paychex-401k-rollover-checks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KE8.bOS8.VimnT7OedYLF&smid=url-share

A Mother's Day Without Mom

  This weekend — for the first time in my life — I’ll spend Mother’s Day without Mom.

For most of my adult life I lived too far away for a trip home for Mother’s Day to be…practical. Not that I didn’t look for — and find — ways to connect with her during the year. But in my heart, Mother’s Day called for a special level of acknowledgement. That said, there’s an emptiness this year where that phone call should be. No need to time it around church or Sunday lunch — or the other calls she’d get.

Since her passing last December, these past months have been…rough. My siblings and I have, at various times, made trips to go through Mom’s house — she was a “gatherer” of family mementos across generations — much of which might, in other eyes, be characterized as “junk.” And yet, in going through the multitudinous boxes of photos and “stuff,” the elementary school awards (and grade cards), not to mention the cards and letters — so many letters — that we wrote to her over the years before things like Facetime, texts and emails took their place (Mom also printed a bunch of the emails) - it's provided lots of opportunities to remember and reflect. 

She was conscious of how many of her friends had, over the years, taken a bad fall from which they never quite recovered. Ironically, despite her caution, that was ultimately the event that led to her passing. I’ve noted before how — above pretty much everything else — Mom didn’t want to be a burden to her family. Not just on the financial front — though she’d been remarkably prescient in her preparations there. Somehow, miraculously, and even through COVID, a pacemaker and a heart valve, she managed to retain her independence. 

Indeed, generally speaking, women face many more challenges regarding retirement preparation than men. They live longer (and thus are likely to have longer retirements to fund), tend to have less saved for retirement (a result of lower incomes, as well as more workforce interruptions, both when children are young, and as their parents age). In addition to longer retirements, those longer lives mean that they are also more likely to have to fund what can be the catastrophic financial burden of long-term care expenses.  And then, among the unexpected expenses in retirement — as parents all know, are those related to your kids — because, even after they leave home and have kids (and expenses) of their own — they’re still your kids.

Sadly, because we know how much difference it can make in retirement savings, women are less likely to work for an employer that offers a retirement plan at work — to be part-time workers, and thus, less likely to be eligible to participate in those plans even when they do have access.

Oh, and like my mother, they tend to outlive their spouses — often by far more than the relatively modest variance in average life expectancy tables suggest. Mom lived on her own for nearly two decades without my Dad. So many times over the past several months she told me how she never thought she’d spend so many years… alone. 

So, if you’ve still got your mom with you this Mother’s Day, don’t wait. Don’t assume there’s time. Send the card. Make the call. Take the picture. Make the trip. Not just because you’ll want the memory someday — but because she deserves it now. And you’ll treasure it one day.

And if, like me, this year finds you standing in the soft ache of absence — know this: a mother’s love doesn’t leave. It lingers. It lives on in the habits she passed down, the values she taught, and in the many quiet ways she shaped the world around her — and you.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I miss you.

- Nevin E. Adams, JD

Designated ‘Drivers’ — 4 Lessons Learned

 Your best laid plans can quickly go awry if your beneficiaries are clueless.

For the past several months, I’ve been dealing with the disposition of my late mother’s estate. In the overall scheme of things, it is neither large, nor particularly complex. As I’ve noted before, Mom did a solid job of not only managing her finances while alive, but in terms of making sure that I (as eldest perhaps, but more specifically as executor) was aware of the various insurance policies, retirement accounts and property. 

In that respect, she was doubtless “better” than many parents in discussing such matters before her passing (though none of that happened until after my father passed). Moreover, despite their modest means, they set up a living trust back when my Dad was with us — specifically to avoid the complexities of going through probate in an effort to make it easier for us. And prior to her passing, Mom made sure I had all the account numbers and phone numbers, and we set up online access to everything — allowing me to help her manage those accounts from afar well before her passing.

That said, and despite all that preparation — there were some “bumps” along the way. Here’s what I learned.   

Lesson #1 — Make sure that you share (or get) information about insurance, retirement and property with trusted individuals/families while you are still able.

Now, for all the headlines about dead people on Social Security rolls, they were “johnny on the spot” in notifying — well, everyone — about Mom’s death. Her pension stopped — immediately — as did access to her online insurance and retirement accounts. That is, of course, a good thing from a fraud standpoint. There are miscreants aplenty who troll death notices and look for opportunities to take advantage of those situations. That said, if I hadn’t already known what accounts Mom had set up — I wouldn’t have had a clue as to how to go about the process of closing and cashing them out.

Lesson #2 — Make sure that you know WHO the designated beneficiary(ies) are for each of the insurance, retirement and properties in question.

Now I had assumed — based on prior conversations that all of Mom’s holdings were set up in the name of the trust. And, armed with account numbers, I proceeded to file claims on that basis.[i] Mind you, everybody wants an original copy of the death certificate — and that means that you have to ship it to folks via a traditional delivery service (FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.). And, as you might expect, they also want some evidence that you are legally positioned to act on behalf of the trust (though this they will accept electronically). This all takes time.

Then I started getting mail BACK from various entities that said the trust was NOT the beneficiary (this is all via mail, so weeks are passing). Of course, when I called to inquire who WAS the beneficiary — well, they wouldn’t tell me, as my legal status of trustee mattered not (nobody talks to anybody (else) until they get the aforementioned death certificates).

Fortunately, as it turned out, Mom had designated — probably back to the time before she had the trust established — her children as beneficiaries. Being one of those, I was then able to pivot — and got a response. They wouldn’t confirm the remainder of the beneficiaries — but knowing Mom, I was pretty sure that she had named each of us as beneficiaries (she had), and so I was able to proceed with my claim (though my siblings had to proceed “individually” with theirs). 

Lesson #3 — It doesn’t “pay” to wait.

With regard to the latter, my experience was that, despite the rapid (if not immediate) cessation of access to Mom’s accounts, the notification to beneficiaries was slow (and, as noted before, via USPS). Moreover, people tend to move over time, and so the beneficiary address that was provided back in 2006 might no longer be accurate. The claim forms, when they did arrive, were bulky, confusing and intimidating — with little reference as to which account was involved, or what kind of account it was. In sum, it would have been easy to see it as junk mail. 

It didn’t help matters that, over the years, consolidation in both the insurance and retirement industries meant that those massive forms came from companies whose name didn’t match the original source (and in two cases, they now bore the same name, but not that of the original companies). As noted above, and through no fault of these companies, the addresses on file were out of date (though one managed to find its way to a nephew of a different brother — in a completely different state — and we still have NO idea how THAT happened).

More than that, my well-educated siblings struggled to make heads or tails of the options.  In their defense, you had to wade through 12 pages of “explanation” to get to those options — and then even this industry “insider” found it to be a head-scratcher. Seriously, do the people who draft these forms have a clue what plain English looks like (p.s., annuity companies really make it hard to request a straightforward lump sum)?

Lesson #4 — You can count on customer service, but only during business hours.

Now, and without exception, everyone I spoke with at the various firms was kind, understanding and helpful — in spirit, if not in what they were allowed to tell me. Much of the claims filing (except for the death certificate) could be done online. Everything — eventually — worked out. 

But if you do have a need to talk to someone at the firms, know that dealing with these matters is something that’s hard to do during “regular” business hours (the one exception — Mom’s 403(b) retirement account!). Fortunately, my “retired” status helped, but for those still working a full-time job, note that most didn’t offer 24-hour — or even evening hours — customer support. Budget your time accordingly. 

And my thanks here to all of those customer service reps who were understanding, kind and patient.

• Nevin E. Adams, JD