cporro wrote:
- quote -

Check with a tax pro on this, but you should be able to just
recharacterize the deposit and not have to deal with any penalties.

Don't waste time getting this fixed, it sounds like the rollover money
passed through your hands instead of going institution-to-institution so
there's a time limit (60 days) to get it into the correct IRA before it
is considered a withdrawal from your 401(k) instead of a rollover.

On the positive side, I've had really good luck with E-Trade when
mistakes occur. They have always fixed me up without a problem.

Good luck,
-Will

On 2006-02-18 05:46:02 -0500, "cporro" <cporro[at]gmail.com> said:

- quote -

If your Roth and youre Regular IRA are at the same place, it's easily
possible for them to have identified the account holder and then place
the contribution into the wrong account. At least it's your own account!

Nevertheless, it generally shouldn't have been possible. Unless you
are doing a regular IRA-> Roth IRA conversion, or one is moving from
one custodian to another, one never contributes more than a few
thousand to a Roth. There is no direct 401k-> Roth rollover.

However, how did you actually perform the rollover - did your
401k provider make a check to you and then you wrote a check
to your Roth account? Or did you have the 401k cut a check directly
to the new trustee? If the latter, the 401k folks should have
asked for the information about the new trustee - and the account
number - before they even cut the check.
- quote -

You need to "recharacterize" it. Do it as soon as possible.
Contact your IRA custodian and explain what happened and they'll
walk you through how to fix it. They have to.


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so i rolled my 401k over into a Rollover IRA. problem is when i checked
my etrade account it was in my Roth IRA not the Rollover IRA. i don't
know whose fault this is yet. i would like to think i'm not bonehead
enough to put the wrong account number on the check.

bottom line. am i gonna be in trouble for this? i mean i now it can't
stay there. i don't think i even qualify for my roth this year. if i
did i'm sure i can't contribute 22k.

so assuming i can transfer into my rollover account will i be
penalized? its been there for maybe a week.

much thanks for any info or just pointing me in the right direction.