Workers Lost Consolidating Old 401(k)s
Individuals are struggling to consolidate and manage retirement funds (401k, 403(b), IRAs) from multiple former employers. This often involves dealing with complex transfers, outdated systems, lost funds, and a lack of clarity on the best course of action, leading to frustration and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
SOURCES (60)
“I am hoping to get some advice about my 401K selection. My company changed offerings to Fidelity, and the choices are very limited. Used to be we had many more different funds to choose from, but the current is just over a dozen options. I…”
“Hello All, I thought I would come over here and see if anyone had any insight to what I have been mulling over. I am a former teacher with 7 years and approximately $40,000 invested in my teacher retirement system. Teachers are vested after 5 years. I do not plan to return to teaching, so the money just sitting there at the moment gaining interest. I currently have a new job where I am now investing in a 401k with 4% match. I am toying with the idea of rolling the funds over into a traditional r”
“I am 35 and just started educating myself on what my retirement money is doing. I apologize in advance for any terms I mess up but I think I have the gist. I'll skip a lot of context, but basically right now I have my largest sum of retirement money (approx 50k) in a 401k from an employer I left years ago. I haven't touched it in and it has been sitting in a Vanguard retirement fund making 9% gains lifetine. I don't think the fund it is in is aggressive enough because it holds 35% bo”
“Sounds like a great idea moving from a 1.3% advisory account to a flat $100 fee plus the low cost of the 2 funds I'm going to be putting the money. Right? Account got zeroed out at PlanMember at close of business yesterday and the check is now in the mail to the Vanguard trust. Does anyone know from experience how long my money will be out of the market? PlanMember can only give me a rough estimate and Vanguard isn't much help. It's a little over 200k. Looking at what the market is d”
“Hey everyone, going through a rough patch right now financially. We are a single-income household (my wife hasnt been able to work), and I need to draw from my Fidelity 401(k). Hoping to get some advice: * Amount: Should I pull only what I need ($20k) or cash out the full balance? * Penalties: Is the 10% early withdrawal penalty calculated only on the $20k I pull, or on the entire account balance? * Waivers: Does qualifying for a hardship waive the 10% penalty, or does it just allow access to th”
“TL;DR : My friend's parents (essentially my aunt/uncle) opened a Roth IRA through a PRIMERICA "church friend" around 2005. (Yes, just found out about PRIMERICA’s reputation). It's been sitting in a high-fee, actively managed fund (ClearBridge Growth Fund Class A) with monthly contributions the entire time. It's now worth ~$60,000. They're close to retirement and I want to help them get this into a low-cost account before further value is lost. Looking for advice on the”
“I was in Vanguard Target 2070 Trust Plus and now I am in Vanguard Target 2070 Trust Select. Basically, does anyone know the difference between the plus and select TDFs at vanguard? Thanks! submitted by /u/NieuwWorld [link] [comments]”
“Call your new 401k administrator and ask them how to proceed. Your bank will probably stop the deposit if you try to deposit a check made payable to someone else.”
“You can't do it. You have to deposit to the 401k. That said, why would you want to take the distribution tax and penalty to sit making virtually nothing?”
“"it's made out to my new employers 401k plan" Then you cannot use the endorsement, "Not used for intended purpose" - you are not the payee or maker of the check. Just put it in the new 401K and if you really want it that badly, withdraw it and take the tax hit.”
“I already have the check, I had to wait until my new 401k was activated, which was a few days ago.”
“The check is payable to your new 401K administrator. How do you split up the amount? And you need deposit within 60 days, or it becomes taxable + penalty for withdrawing early. Try find some CD type investment in your new 401K plan.”
“There's no way to do that from the banking side. From the tax side is a whole other thing. That'll show as an early withdrawal right? Not ideal. Suggest tax wise you do a loan or hardship withdrawal.”
“I have an old 457 through Corebridge from a previous job that is holding $32k. That job also has a pension so this was just where I put annual excess PTO payouts. It does fine, as the market has been, but I am wondering if I should just consolidate and roll into my current 403b with Fidelity. It’s 3.5 years in and at $80k. I’ve recently begun maxing it despite the pension simply to have more options later on. I don’t envision a scenario where I would use any of the 457’s liquidity but still get”
“Hey all, I’m a 26M recently departed from my employer. Through their match program I received 6% through 3 years and now have $17k to freely spend across my own rollover account. All tips to disperse this would be greatly appreciated whether it be across various sectors or all into VOO, FXAIX, etc. submitted by /u/Jumpy-Regular-2949 [link] [comments]”
“This is a bit convoluted but I’m just freaking out a bit and am trying to make sure I do my next steps correctly. (1) I had a 401k with a former employer (brokerage was John Hancock). My former employer was switching to a new brokerage by end of last month so I made a request for a direct rollover to my new employer’s brokerage before that happened. (2) I want to roll it over to my current employer’s brokerage (Fidelity) (3) due to some confusion in the forms apparently, John Hancock issued a ch”
“Yep, that's the law around 401K plans, hardship, withdrawals or loans only until you separate employment from the company. Even then hypothetically, you'll want to be careful that you don't get taxed and penalized which will dramatically reduce your balance”
“The best way to port out your assets is to have the receiving company do that. Call Fidelity to confirm they will cover your fees and have them port our your accounts. Request the transfer be 'in-kind'.”
“Is there any benefit to rolling this over to fidelity? I like my investment options with Vanguard better. I tried to get fee answers with phone support(subpar) and read the fee schedule and can’t find anything alarmingly expensive to keep it in Vanguard. submitted by /u/Bman282828 [link] [comments]”
“Hello, Wanting to reallocate and simplify my 401k going forward with low cost index funds. What do you think about this. Some of the forms don’t give the tickers, just the fund name. 40% Fidelity 500 index FXAIX 10% Fidelity mid cap index 10% Fidelity small cap index 40% Fidelity international index (believe this fund is only developed markets. Don’t see one for emerging) Thoughts and criticisms? EDIT - Currently 37. Wont start adding bonds until I am about 10 years from retirement. I see the be”
“I like employer for my work 401k that I am forced to use. Since you have a choice - fidelity or vanguard would be my preference. Empower would be "simpler" which can be a good thing. "Personal" could mean 'rollover 401k no longer tied to old employer' or 'brokerage account that is not tax advantaged'. You would likely need to open a "personal" account than transfer funds to the Roth IRA since it sounds like your Schwab is in a brokerage and not a tax”
“I have enough money in my 401k to pay out my credit card debt. So I was wondering if I should take out the 401k even with the tax withdrawal to finally be free of debt worries and start over. Please helpp submitted by /u/limitless_a1 [link] [comments]”
“Hi all, I have a 401k and Roth IRA through Empower as my previous employer used them. I have been unemployed for ~20 months (SAHM) and just left it there to grow but haven’t been contributing. I have money in stocks with Schwab and an empty Roth IRA account with them too right now. I just tried to call Empower and move all my money but they started talking about keeping it there in a personal account and I got a little lost. Anyways - any thoughts on keeping with Empower vs moving everything to”
“Just as the title says, I’m still a little in aw about the whole situation. Just making sure I’m doing this right while I look for a new job , thank you you in advance submitted by /u/aunty_megatron [link] [comments]”
“My company dissolved and I waited too long after to move my 401k into other means. When this happened they moved the 401k into a trust company called Inspira and it was made into a traditional IRA, I’ve located my account, and now I would like to move my money to a different financial institution to make it easier for me to track. I’m not sure the exact steps to take to ensure I’m not penalized. I’ve opened a new account with a different institution but I’m very wary about the transfer situation”
“I had a 401k through my old employer who used vanguard and my new employer uses fidelity, I can’t roll it over directly into my new 401k, but can create a rollover IRA if I want to move it to fidelity. I will have about $15,000 sitting in that 401k account of the company I am no longer apart of. I really want to invest into VTSAX. Does it make sense to move it to fidelity? Or to just invest into VTSAX through vanguard? Not sure if it’s better to have all your investments through one platform. Do”
“I am away from my house and I got a letter from the Vanguard Fair Fund administrator c/o Rust Consulting. I won't be able to access my mail personally for a while. Is this time critical? Should I ask a friend to open it for me? I assume it has to do with the class action suit against Vanguard for the Target Retirement funds. It was my understanding that Rust Consulting was replaced as the settlement administrator. submitted by /u/Responsible-Bid5015 [link] [comments]”
“I apologize if this topic has been covered ad nauseam, but I’m having a hard time tracking down an old 401k account. Back in 2019 I was employed at a large solar company that was eventually bought and acquired by another solar company. I only worked there for a couple years and eventually was let go. While there I was enrolled in a 401k program that probably didn’t accumulate more than $3k. I must admit I’m not very financially literate and I didn’t pay much attention to it, but I have several o”
“According to the disclosure document at my new 401k, yes I pay the fee. I don’t know if my old 401k charges different fees for ex-employees. I’m going to contact them and ask them”
“Are you sure you pay the fee while you are employed there? Does your old 401K charge any fees now that you aren't employed there? You can also try to get people at your new company onboard to request a better 401K fee plan. If enough people complain they may change it.”
“Thanks I will definitely look into that. Didn’t realize that could be a thing. If so it could absolutely change the calculus”
“The 2500/year (and increasing as the balance grows) makes me uncomfortable. If it was 200-500 per year I can stomach that. Multiple thousands seems like I’m leaving some money on the table”
I do backdoor roths and I think that will make those messier
“I joined a new company and typically I roll over my 401k into my new 401k. I’ve got comparable investment funds in the new 401k (Fidelity S&P500, International, Mid Cap and Small Cap) with low expense ratios (0.02 - 0.04), but in the finer details I saw my new 401k provider also charges a fee of 0.51% of the total balance annually. This would end up being ~2700 whereas my old provider seems to only charge ~240 annually. I feel like that’s a significant difference and while I prefer keeping i”
“Short story, I am getting hosed on fees from previous employer's 401k. I want to roll it over into my current company's 401k plan but I don't know what the tax implications are. For my current employer, there is no match so I have been making Roth (after-tax contributions) as I am above the income limit for a traditional Roth IRA contributions and want to still have a Roth vehicle. What are the implications for having both roth and non-roth funds in my company's plan? Should I in”
“hey everyone! i had started gaining money in my 401k account through starbucks for a few months before i was fired in 2022. because i was so frustrated with the way everything ended, i never thought about what i had in my 401k or how to access it after i left. does anyone know how i could access it? maybe an even sillier question, do the 401ks combine when you switch jobs? i am not financially literate so that questions might come across as silly 😅 anyways, if anyone has any advice or answers i”
“This submission has been temporarily locked for review due to a high volume of rule-breaking comments. Thank you in advance for your patience as we try to maintain a high-quality discussion. The original submission text is below. I am a 69 year-old married medical doctor with $920,000 in my 401(k), $2,000 in a Roth IRA $300,000 in a high-yield savings account and $64,000 in a SEP IRA. So $1.26 million I own a home worth $440,000 with a $93,000 mortgage left on it at 3% interest. I pay $2,000 per”
“I’m about to transfer my 401K too after leaving my previous employer. Is there no fees from transferring to an IRA? I have 100% in state street fund, what do you all recommend instead?”
“I left my old job last year and rolled about $27k from the 401k into an IRA. The transfer went through, I saw the money in the account and thought I was done. I was on my laptop last night checking everything and noticed that account had barely moved. Started clicking around and realized the entire $27k has been sitting as cash since the rollover. I never actually bought anything with it. I feel pretty stupid because I remember doing the rollover specifically so the money wouldnt get forgotten a”
“Need more info. Depends what accounts you're getting money from, what accounts you have, and if they'll accept incoming transfers. If you have a divorce lawyer, they can probably help you with this as it should be a normal thing they've dealt with. If you roll anything to a Roth IRA you'll pay taxes on it, so that will depend on your income currently.”
“I have two retirement accounts - one from my current employer and one from a former employer. I am getting funds from my husband's retirement account as a part of our divorce and I'm trying to figure out where to put them. Should I add them to one of my current accounts or is it better to do something like a Roth IRA? I'm 55 but don't have much saved for retirement and don't know if there are advantages to one type of account over another. submitted by /u/313forli”
“After a few different employer changes I’ve finally decided to start consolidating my retirement accounts to make it easier to manage. I have a 403B with both pre-tax and employer contributions. I believe I can roll these over. I’m trying to decide between my current employer or a Fidelity IRA. I already have a traditional IRA at Fidelity that I use to do backdoor Roth every year. Can I just fund into that? If so, how do I do my Roth conversions each year? submitted by /u/Technical_Q”
“I have a new job with its own 401k option. However, from the my previous job I have TWO 401ks with money in them because the company was bought out. I have less than 20k altogether in those two. I dont know if I should roll them over to the new one, especially when I am unsure if I want to stay at this new job for too too long, I just needed something after the lay off. The two 401k companies I am dealing with are two Vestwell accounts from the old company and now Human Interest with the new com”
“Hi all, I recently asked about moving from my 3 fund (FXAIX, FZILX, FZROX) to VT within my Fidelity individual account and the general consensus was yes, move to VT. I wanted to re-ask this with a couple of caveats given Gemini seems to make me believe this is not a good idea. Context: I'm in the US on a visa, I plan to be here for a few more years, but nothing is certain. I work for an employer who loves to lay people off :) . I am a JP permanent resident and hold UK & Irish citizenship”
“Hi everyone, I just wanted to share my experience with July 401(K) services, as it has been less than satisfactory. While with my prior employer, the plan administration set the email address for my account as my work email. I requested this be updated prior to leaving, but it seems they never followed through. As a result, I called July several times, and each time was told I would receive an email from them to change the address. Because of this, I did not have access to my account for almost”
“Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I'll look into pulling from the principle if I end up needing to make a withdrawal.”
“if that's all that the ESOP has (no cash b/c no dividends have ever been paid), then, yes, nothing to roll over separately.”
“I’m aggressively looking for the next job but want to be prepared to take next steps if I don’t land one soon enough. Is it more wise to withdraw from 401k or get a HELOC? submitted by /u/whoresongummy [link] [comments]”
“the stock does NOT go into a rollover account - it's distributed outright and you pay tax on the cost basis (not the fair market value). then the rest can be rolled over to a 401k or an IRA”
“I can't name my son as a beneficiary on an inherited 401K. Can I do a POD? What is the tax implication for a Roth rollover, and could I name him as the beneficiary then? Thanks. submitted by /u/justgonenow [link] [comments]”
“Mainly the Rollover in form. You probably want the rollover out form. Call Voya and ask them to guide you.”
“Hello! Im new here so apologies for any rule breaks. But im having a hard time understanding the instructions on moving my old voya retirement 403b to my new one with my new employer who also uses a voya 403b. Anyone have experience with doing this? Thanks for any help! submitted by /u/Dhenn004 [link] [comments]”
“I'm just reading this, it was lost in my notifications. Thank you SOOOO much for explaining this to me so simply ;_;. I absolutely understand now why I shouldn't remove the money because the interest grows on what I have now (right? sorry I'm a regurgitating learner and have to repeat back what you're telling me). Is this what folks in this thread mean on "compound interest"? Also I'm 33! So it would be severe to FUTURE ME because that money can accrue and leave me”
“New to Reddit, first time posting. This may be a very simple question. I have a 401K account with my old employer sitting there, meaning I’m not contributing or adding anything. I opened a small business a couple of year’s ago, so there is no option to rollover to a new employer. Do I roll it over into a Vanguard IRA? Or is there something better I should be doing with it? It doesn’t seem like it should just be sitting there with my old employer? Any feedback what to do with it is appreciated as”
“Does it matter if my assets are in my retirement accounts or in cash? I always thought as long as I have x dollars saved, I am good.”
“Yes, move all of your accounts to Vanguard since you already have an account there. It's easy since all of your accounts will be under one login. (Hubby's accounts will be under one login for him too.) If you were not already with Vanguard, I would say it's a toss up between Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab.”
“I have been trying to simplify some old retirement accounts and I think I have narrowed it down to one decision I am still unsure about. I have about $18.7k in an old Roth 403(b) and about $8.3k in a governmental Roth 457(b) through the Wisconsin Deferred Compensation Program. I have verified that both balances are Roth money. I also already have a Fidelity Roth IRA. I have a long time horizon and I do not expect to use this money before retirement. My plan is to keep the investments aggressive”