Reading @Catch22’s post above …
I assume the owner of the account (you or I) makes the final decision as to when to take the RMD (in compliance with the governing law). Fido may indeed calculate an amount and send reminders.
Actually, my read of the law is that RMDs do not have to come evenly from various fiduciaries. You are allowed to pick and choose where to take it. I’ve no problem taking distributions from their cash account when / if I decide to do it. Now only 25-30% in Traditional IRAs. Pull more out most years than the calculation calls for. Prefer to pay taxes on distributions now and let the Roth grow as a % of invested assets.
Took my RMD early this year for rather complex reasons related to rebalancing. Essentially, through a “merry-go-round”, the proceeds ended up in PRHYX as part of my portfolio’s bond component. (But it’s complicated.)
One further note: We’ve discussed Michigan’s mandatory withholding here before (the “pension tax” as it’s called). ISTM Catch did once report having filed the Michigan W 4-P with one or more of his custodians years ago. And, likely it remains in effect until he changes it. (Obviously, my recollection might be wrong). I’ve always thought TRP was being overly restrictive on that issue.
I’ve read before (but don’t have time to research it) that the state even withholds tax from Roth distributions w/o the W 4P being on file. Completely illogical. Of course you’d get the money back at tax time.

Hi hank,
Below are the choices (Fidelity) when one has a RMD from a traditional IRA. We'll have to do the RMD's again for 2021.
This process starts with selecting the "transfer" icon that steps you easily through selecting your traditional IRA account, how much money, which bank or c.u. account to move the monies and tax withholding choices.
Note: the RMD money will come from your "core cash account", so if one's RMD is $5,000; you'll have to have this amount in your cash account prior to the transfer. In my case for the 2021 RMD, I currently have $104 in cash; so, at some point before April of 2022, I'll have to sell something, which will automatically go to the cash account to accommodate the required RMD amount. ALSO, Fidelity will provide to you, the RMD calculation for your IRA account with them, based upon the value of your IRA account.

Choose your federal tax withholding
The IRS requires Fidelity to use 10% as the default rate for federal taxes.
Federal tax rate, 10% (default)
You can choose to increase this rate or opt out by selecting '0%'. If you opt out, you may need to pay these taxes when you file your tax returns.
Choose your state tax withholding
Based on MI rules, the default state tax rate is 4.25%.
State tax rate
4.25% (default)
You have the option to change this to a higher percentage or opt out.

@hank, I believe TMSRX is a TF fund at Fidelity. Even so you can do "automatic investment" at specific amount and date for purchase, $5 fee. No fee for selling TF funds. Other TRF funds are on no-transaction fee platform. Each brokerage is different on who is or not on NTF platform.

Earlier this year, I purchased TMSRX at Fido with a TF. But after checking on it recently, I see that it is now offered NTF at Fido. Good news for a change!

@hank, I believe TMSRX is a TF fund at Fidelity. Even so you can do "automatic investment" at specific amount and date for purchase, $5 fee. No fee for selling TF funds. Other TRF funds are on no-transaction fee platform. Each brokerage is different on who is or not on NTF platform.
In kind transfer is always free at Fidelity and everything can be done online.
These days I am using more ETFs just to keep thing simpler.

Thanks a lot Bee for commenting and correcting me.
Initial withdrawal - 4% annually
Will claim SS at the age of 70 (corrected)
PV - overlooked - based on the historical analysis - value of portfolio increased with 4% withdrawal in the last 5 years. So 1st option is simplest and manageable. Thanks for the backstop provided by Central Banks.

+1 I've been using ACSNX PRWBX EALDX and VUSB in this area,with slight allocations to TRBUX and BBBMX as these funds each lost more than 150 basis points in 1Q 2020.

Transfers in kind are always free on the receiving end - at least I've never seen anyone list a charge. Charges on the sending side are another matter.
Fund families don't charge fees to transfer out in kind, again AFAIK. Some brokerages do charge - they may have one fee for a partial transfer (i.e. less than all your holdings), another fee for a full transfer, or both or neither. Fidelity charges no outgoing fees. Schwab charges $25 for partial in kind, $50 for a full transfer.
https://www.fidelity.com/why-fidelity/pricing-fees (includes Schwab pricing comparison)
That still beats WellsTrade by a mile - it charges $95. Here's a page giving in-kind (ACAT) transfer fees from various brokerages:
https://topratedfirms.com/brokers/fees/brokerage-account-transfer-fees.aspx

Appreciate the notes @mef / @MikeM,
“D&C funds are transaction fee funds, but once you have positions in the funds at Fidelity (via transfer in kind), it may be possible to add more shares for a $5 fee and sell with no fees.”
- Just out of curiosity (being pretty much in the dark) when doing a TIK (transfer in kind) I assume there’s no charge? Or … is the charge waived only for NTIF funds?
- Re PRWCX … Since I have it now in a traditional IRA, may I assume (1) I can do a TIK to fidelity and (2) my ability to buy and sell shares will continue (as long as I don’t close the account) ?
-
This will be a gradual process.
The recent issue involved their ignoring the Michigan W-4P (withholding opt-out form) which I have faithfully completed and mailed to them every January 1 for about a decade (ever since Michigan began mandatory withholding) along with a typewritten letter and list of funds affected.
For whatever reason, yesterday they withheld Michigan tax from one of the two distributions. My transaction was a pretty routine process. Simply exchanging from 2 IRA funds into a single non-retirement money market fund. There’s a check-off box to decline federal w/h - but not for state. According to their phone rep this morning having a W-4P on file is no longer adequate. The distribution request must also be presented to them in a phone call or by letter for the W-4P to be honored. “Why-Oh-Why just the one fund?” (I asked). Why was the second distribution not hit with the same withholding! Answer: “That was a one-time occurrence” (ie: an accident).
At this point I’m holding my breath hoping they don’t go back and pull tax out of the unafflicted fund.
Ahhh …

Hello All,
I will be retiring shortly and looking to develop a plan for de-accumulation (HARD).
All of my investments are in tax deferred accounts.
I plan to claim Social security @ the age of 72 (will help me burn tax deferred money, reduce RMD).
Tax bracket will not change = 22% as of now, will convert some to Roth and stay below IRMAA limit.
Plan options:
- I sell 1/10 of monthly expenses from 10 funds even or
- I sell 1/5 of monthly expenses from top performing 5 funds (3 yr returns) or
- I sell 1/5 of monthly expenses from bottom performing 5 funds (3 yr returns)?
- I sell 1/5 of monthly expenses from top performing 5 funds (1 yr return) or
- I sell 1/5 of monthly expenses from bottom performing 5 funds (1 yr return)?
Selling will be every quarter.
Funds are mixture of growth, value, multi-asset/balance and bonds.
I want to make it as mechanical as possible.
What do you think about my options?
Do you have any similar strategy?
Any comment/feedback will be highly appreciated.
Thanks.
D

Congratulations.
That's too bad about T. Rowe Price. Over the years I've found them extremely helpful, whether it was in setting up my individual 401(k) or with issues in managing it, or in navigating their closed fund rules, or with steps to distribute assets from an estate.
(OTOH, it took me six months to get a correction distribution out of a rollover IRA that came from a 401(k). There had been an excess contribution in the 401(k) that needed to be undone. No institution is perfect.)
As I recall, you have some D&C funds directly with the family. If you want to consolidate them at Fidelity, you may be able to do that without increasing your costs too much. D&C funds are transaction fee funds, but once you have positions in the funds at Fidelity (via transfer in kind), it may be possible to add more shares for a $5 fee and sell with no fees.
You first have to check whether Fidelity allows automatic investments for these funds. It does for most, but not all. To add to your position, you set up a series of automatic investments, then after the first one executes you cancel the rest. This gives you control and costs you $5/buy. Selling is done as usual, by placing a same-day sell order.
Whether it's worth the nominal fee and small lag time in making purchases (automated investments are not supposed to be set up as same-day purchases) is a matter of personal preference.

May 21st Episode @catch22 ping:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1843841/000158064221002475/dgi497s.htm
(DGTIX, DGINX, DGIBX)
497 1 dgi497s.htm 497
SUPPLEMENT DATED MAY 24, 2021
TO THE PROSPECTUS
AND STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATED MAY 21, 2021
OF DGI BALANCED FUND (the “Fund”)
(a series of the DGI Investment Trust)
Effective May 24, 2021, the Fund will be closed to new investors and, except as discussed below, will be closed to new sales until further notice. Existing investors who had a pre-existing periodic investment plan through their individual retirement account (“IRA”) or who submitted a rollover request on or before May 17, 2021 may continue to invest in accordance with that plan or rollover request. Also, existing investors who hold their shares in the Fund through an IRA will continue to have their dividends and other distributions reinvested in the Fund. The Fund may restrict, reject or cancel any purchase order and reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.
Please Retain This Supplement For Future Reference.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.dgifund.com/

PRAFX is sporting a 1-star rating at Morningstar at this time. Guess that’s due to its only being up 50% over the past year. Don’t intend to sell based on this dismal assessment. Only hold a “smigin” anyway, choosing to complement it with 3 other funds inside my 7.5% allocation to “real assets”. Just points to how crazy the M* ratings can get.
There is no consistent approach in the commodifies / real assets sector. Anything from gold miners
to John Deere farm equipment - and from oil rigs to mobile home parks is fair game for these type of funds and their managers. So trying to award “stars” on some kind of commonality among them is pretty futile.
In contrast, Lipper gives PRAFX the following scores (scale of 1-5)
Total Return 5
Consistent Return 5
Capital Preservation 1
Low Expense 5
Tax Efficiency ) 5
Admittedly, there’s a world of difference between Morningstar’s rating system and the “ranking” by percentiles that Lipper publishes.
Anybody else sitting on a 1-star fund? This is my first ever - based on recollection. No place to go but up …

Quite a few column inches devoted to one particular type of bank account, TD Bank's "Preferred Chequing". It talks about one customer who's had the account for 25 years.
What isn't mentioned is that the reason such a long time customer was used as an example is that all customers of this account have had it for at least two decades. Preferred Chequing was discontinued in 2001 except for grandfathered customers.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/household-finances/article-was-this-big-bank-too-nice-in-giving-some-clients-a-break-on-fees/
The disproportionate coverage of this one particular account type to the exclusion of all others suggests that this is a corner case and not necessarily representative.
The customer is quoted as asking: "In an environment where people have lost their jobs, they're on furlough, they're trying to get CERB payments, who's going to be able to keep $5,000 in their bank account to not get service fees?"
The article could have responded to this by noting that since 2003, low-cost accounts (with minimum requirements set by the government) have been available at many banks, including TD Bank.
https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/banking/bank-accounts/low-cost-no-cost.html
Or that TD Bank is not raising monthly maintenance fees or min balance requirements on its current offerings, and is eliminating the paper statement fee on its Student Chequing Account. Though it is converting Youth Accounts to Student Chequing Accounts, resulting in a new cap of 25 transactions/mo w/o fees.
https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/document/PDF/accounts/513796.pdf
Or that CERB shut down before these fee hikes. If the point is that many people are dealing with reduced cash flows (notably, lower income), that's whom low cost accounts are designed for.
Certainly some Canadian bank fees are going up, and while the government is doing something to help, it could always do more. But this article does not present the typical account nor does it present a broad picture of banking fees in Canada.
It's a little dated (2014), but here's a Canadian government study of banking fees.
https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/financial-consumer-agency/migration/eng/resources/researchsurveys/documents/bankingfees-fraisbancaires-eng.pdf

I'm a big fan. Or rather, I was. The profitability of those "Big 5" banks is the closest thing to a sure bet in investing I've ever seen.
CM
TD
RY
BMO
BNS
But I cannot any longer ignore the unethical way that these banks treat their customers. It's been going on for years. Tonight on CBC's The National, I saw a news story that "broke the camel's back." And their customers = 90% of all money on deposit in Canada. Now, despite MAKING A PROFIT during the Covid ordeal, they are raising minimums in order for customers to avoid paying fees, and raising the fees, as well. And add to this, the fact that in-person service has been cut back to a bare-bones level. On this basis, I will not be buying. Until there is a sea-change, somehow.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-fee-increases-1.6032824

Hank, yes; I noted about mis-pricing during some time periods for muni bonds vs taxable bonds. I considered several years ago an investment in NHMRX, but other sector investments were performing nicely and the transaction didn't happen. All of my accounts are either T or Roth IRA's, and the online buy (muni fund) wouldn't have been processed.
Below, is the current message returned when attempting to buy a muni fund for a T or Roth IRA at Fidelity. All online buys require a "preview the trade" before being processed. As @msf noted, the message doesn't prevent the transaction in total, but not via electronic channels.
----- (010386) The security you are attempting to trade is a tax-free mutual fund. Retirement accounts are prevented from buying or exchanging into tax-free mutual funds through the electronic channels. For more information, contact a Fidelity representative at 800-544-6666. -----
@Crash. It is not stated in this thread that you can not have a muni investment in an IRA; but that you can not process the transaction electronically.

(From the Fidelity document @msf linked): “Trades for $1,000 or less (are exempt from the trading block). (Please note that if more than one buy order or sell order for a given fund is executed on the same day in the same account, the $1,000 threshold is based on the total dollar value of all orders for that fund.)”
- Gets confusing, but (regarding the above) I wonder if one could do several identical $1,000 transactions, one-day apart without running amuck of their rules? Maybe there’s a “gottcha” somewhere else in their rule book.
- Like most other fund providers, Fidelity exempts money market funds from the excessive trading restrictions.
- Thanks @msf for clarifying the TRP policy. I guess I was just trying to generalize whereas specificity is needed.
- Am old enough to remember when TRP had a 90-day “round trip” rule as well - though not sure how similar to Fido’s it was. Price quietly dropped that when they adapted the 30-day block msf referenced.
- Price also more recently dropped its early redemption fee on many of their funds. ISTM that 2% of the amount sold early was pretty typical. On a $2500 sale 2% = $50. So, it’s hard to characterize Fido’s $49.95 fee on NTF funds sold early as price gouging. If anything, it sounds more forgiving than the old Price policy was. (But with Fido, the NTF fund itself may have additional redemption fees.)
“Fidelity has ... an easy website … but the more they change it to look like their small screen ap, the worse it gets. Fidelity recently changed its bill payment interface so now I have to go through multiple screens to accomplish what used to be easier.”
- Re the above, I’m thinking Fidelity’s website / tech changes may eventually confuse its reps to the point they’re as “lost” in the process as TRP’s now appear. :)

Agreed. David Swenson's passing points to the initial success he had with Yale's endowment in Private Equity because he was the first one to the game and had good choices, and the where withal to evaluate them. Many endowments who jumped in latter have not done anywhere nearly as well
If folks with Billions can't get an advantage, how can we?

David Swenson invested in private equity, hedge funds, and timberland before many other investment professionals realized their potential. The Yale Endowment had excellent access to these alternative asset investments and its staff was proficient in evaluating management team skill. As you mentioned, many endowments who later imitated the "Yale Model" have not performed nearly as well.
There will be opportunities available in private equity. Many companies are choosing to remain private for longer time periods. Ordinary investors can invest in publicly listed private equity firms (Blackstone, The Carlyle Group, KKR, etc.). These investors can also seek out mutual funds with private equity allocations but this will not be a pure-play. SEC rules for illiquid assets (15% limit?) restrict mutual funds from owning too much private equity.

Lawyers making claims. Ya. And uncle Jeffrey never did anything with those underage girls, either.
...Gonna need you to send Lawyers, Guns and Money to get me outa this.