Any reason NOT to consolidate my 403b contracts (US Citizen, Canadian PR)

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FLbiker
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2021 10:57 am

Any reason NOT to consolidate my 403b contracts (US Citizen, Canadian PR)

Post by FLbiker »

Hello. I am a US citizen who moved to Canada as a permanent resident last summer. I have an old 403b at TIAA and my current plan is to leave it there as they have been friendly to me having a Canadian mailing address. In 45, and I don't anticipate drawing from it before I'm 59.5. And I've posted this over at FWF as well, but so far I haven't gotten any responses.

My 403b is split between three contracts, each of which have slightly different investment options. Fortunately for me, the one that allows rollovers in is also the one that has the best investment options (namely institutional versions of the three Vanguard funds I primarily use: VITSX, VBTIX, VTSNX). Is there any reason NOT to consolidate all of my holdings into one contract?

My hesitation is mostly around the uncertainty of having to move it some day. Let's say TIAA becomes not-Canadian-friendly and I want to roll it into an RRSP. I could see wanting to do in chunks, over a couple of years, rather than all at once. If I consolidate the contracts into one, would I have to do this theoretical 403b to RRSP conversion all at once? My thinking is no -- that even if the contracts were combined I could convert parts of the 403b at a time. And, if not, I think I could spin parts of the 403b off to separate TIRAs and then roll those over time to an RRSP. Is this right?

I'm not talking about a huge savings here -- the "high" expense ratio offerings in my worst contract are in the .2 range vs more like .04 for the Vanguard institutional class funds. It's a combination of fees and simplicity that are nudging me towards consolidation, but I don't want to create any potential future headaches for myself.

Again, the root of my question is whether or not there is any reason NOT to combine these contracts. Thank you very much for your thoughts on this, and please let me know if you have any questions. Also, if it makes a difference, here are the amounts:

Contract 1 (Institutional Vanguard, the potential destination): $58,500
Contract 2 (Admiral Vanguard): $31,500
Contract 3 (the "high" expense one): $175,750
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