My 401k to Gold IRA transfer timeline experience - Dublin, OH

• •It took a bit longer than I expected, but overall I’m super relieved to have it done.
• •My 401k was sitting at about $1.8M when I initiated the rollover – all from my tech startup days before I cashed out a few years back.
• •The market volatility lately was really making me anxious, so I finally pulled the trigger.

Just wrapped up my 401k to Gold IRA transfer and thought I'd share my timeline for anyone else considering it, especially if you're in the Dublin/Columbus area. It took a bit longer than I expected, but overall I’m super relieved to have it done. My 401k was sitting at about $1.8M when I initiated the rollover – all from my tech startup days before I cashed out a few years back. The market volatility lately was really making me anxious, so I finally pulled the trigger.

Here’s how it broke down for me: I first contacted a Gold IRA company (won't name them specifically here, but they came highly recommended) around early March. Had a great initial consultation, felt good about their process. Paperwork was sent out the next day. Filling everything out took me a couple of evenings, mostly because I was double-checking every single detail – you're talking about a significant chunk of change here, so no room for error! Sent all the signed documents back to them via FedEx by the end of the second week in March.

The waiting game for the actual 401k custodian to release the funds felt like an eternity. My old 401k was with one of the big national firms, and they weren’t exactly speedy. It took them nearly three weeks from when the Gold IRA company formally requested the funds until the check was finally issued. Once the check was in transit and received by my new Gold IRA custodian, the actual purchase of the physical gold and silver, and getting it allocated to my account, was surprisingly fast – maybe 3-4 business days. All in all, from my first contact to seeing the metals in my segregated storage account, it was just under 6 weeks. I was hoping for more like 3-4 weeks, but hey, it's done.

Anyone else have similar timelines, or did yours go faster/slower? What were the biggest holdups for you? I’m curious if my custodian was particularly slow, or if this is par for the course for larger transfers. Also, any other folks from Central Ohio who've done this recently?