How do i roll my 401k money into IRA?

Question

how does that work, what are the steps, or the best places to go to.

Answer 1

This is very simple. You need to go to a bank or investment house of your choice (I use Fidelity) and open an IRA rollover account. Then contact your 401K administrator and have a check made out as instructed by your new bank. Make sure you do this properly as if the check is made out to you or anyone aside from the bank, it could be a taxable event subject to all income taxes and possible penalties.

Here is some info:
http://personal.fidelity.com/products/retirement/rollover/rolloverintro.shtml.cvsr?refhp=c

Answer 2

Since these are pretty much the same thing, I was wondering why you would want to do this. If you are leaving an employer who has a 401K plan that you have, all you have to do is fill out the paperwork and they will do it for you. I'm not positive that you can roll that into an IRA, for some reason I think that it might have to be in a separate account although I might be thinking of something different. Your broker will know.

Answer 3

Call the company who is handling the 401k money for your employer. Tell them that you want to keep the money with them so they need to characterize the money from 401k to rollover IRA. They will rollover for you quickly and, usually, you don't have to worry about paper work. After that, if you are really happy with that company, then stay with them otherwise you can transfer it to a discount broker you like. Just go to the discount broker you like, fill out the form and they will do the rest for you. Hope this help.