For best results, all forms mentioned below must be printed out, filled out and signed in ink, and mailed directly to OPM at the following address:
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Attn: Federal Employee Retirement System
Post Office Box 45
Boyers, PA 16017-0045
In order to send directly to OPM, you must wait 30 days after your last day at GSA. However, because part of the process requires you to mail some forms to your financial institution and wait for them to send them back, you can start the process about 15 days after your last day.
Here is the step-by-step process:
Page 1 should be self-explanatory, but just in case, here is what I entered for the items that might be ambiguous:
- Department or Agency: General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service/18F
- Title of Position: Innovation Specialist [c]
- Indicate whether retirement deductions were withheld from your salary: Withheld
- Have you paid deposit or redeposit...: Not Paid
No
- Pay ALL to my Thrift Savings Plan Account
-
Pay ALL by check made payable to my IRA or Eligible Employer Plan Name of Financial Institution of Employer Plan: Vanguard
-
This rollover is to a Roth IRA
Mail the check:
- to the above institution or plan
Just my wet signature and date
My wife signed this page, then took it to her office and had 2 colleagues sign it as witnesses
I called Vanguard to find out where I needed to send this form, and they said to send it to the address below, along with instructions.
Vanguard Group
P.O. Box 1110
Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110
Here is the letter I sent:
Letter of Instructions for Vanguard pertaining to form SF3106 for rolling over the refund of
retirement deductions to Moncef Belyamani’s Roth IRA account (my account number)
To Whom It May Concern,
Please fill out the top portion of the form labeled “Certification by Financial Institution
or Eligible Employer Plan”, and please send the original signed form with wet signature back
to me at the following address:
Moncef Belyamani
my address
Thank you,
Moncef Belyamani
In retrospect, I should have included more details because I got an email (or a call?) from Vanguard asking for more details. The person I spoke to wasn't familiar with SF 3106 and I had to explain that I was expecting $X amount to be transferred to my Roth IRA account from OPM. They asked if there was an account number the money was coming from and I explained that there wasn't.
By the way, the amount you should expect to receive is listed on your last paycheck in Employee Express at the top under Cumulative Retirement Agency
.
Just fill out Part I (1-11) and include it with SF 3106 when you send it to OPM
YMMV, but I mailed everything on January 21 or a few days later, and I got an email from Vanguard about the transfer on February 26.
Thank you for this @monfresh
I am nearing a full year of trying to get my FERS earnings rolled over to an IRA. I submitted in March 2023, knowing I was to wait around 4-8 months for processing. An email came to me in October 2023, but was filtered to spam and I didn't see it. The email denied my request due to lack of wet signatures (having a very hard time believing that's true, but I'm not about to litigate that bit with OPM). By the time I figured out the email was there, the 30 day deadline on correcting the problem had expired and now my only recourse seemingly is starting the process over again.
I have had similar experience to @rileypeterson calling the FERS number. When I did finally reach someone, it was only by navigating the byzantine phone menu and claiming I was calling for a different reason, and then insisting to the person on the line that they were going to help me even though I hadn't gone through the proper phone channel (of which there wasn't one). I did learn on that phone call that there is record of the SF-3106 denial. It's filed in their system under my social security number.
The form is confusing on back of page 1 and front of page 2, but my conclusion right now, corroborated above, is that you leave Direct Deposit area completely blank if you are rolling the funds directly to an IRA.
This go-round I will be sending the form in certified mail because I can't have another 6-12 month delay at OPM because my form didn't get into the proper pile.
Prior advice I've received elsewhere, which I am also going to follow this time, is to involve your district's U.S. representative office in the filing. I am going to send a copy with a letter to them detailing my frustration with this process. I have heard this helps a great deal in expediting requests to OPM. Worth a shot.
Can't tell you how frustrating dealing with the faceless wall of OPM is.