On this episode of The Retirement Huddle podcast, Mark Howard explains why it’s important to roll your 401k into an IRA when you leave a company.

We see this a lot when we sit down with clients, especially those who have a lot of accounts and are still working. People tend to focus on contributing to their current 401k, but they forget about their previous ones that are still with a previous employer.

You have a lot of choices. You can take your old 401k and roll it into your new 401k, but we do not recommend you do that. We suggest you roll it into an IRA, an outside institution, because there are more investment choices.

Most 401ks are very limited in terms of investment choices and have target date funds and cookie-cutter type investment portfolios. There are also a lot of hidden fees in 401ks.

When you have money in an IRA, that gives you the ability to work with an advisor. So many people are not aware of the flexibility they have in their existing 401k, especially when they turn 59.5 years old.

There are no tax ramifications because you’re going from one qualified plan to another qualified plan. We can handle all of that for you and walk you through the choices.

Listen to the full episode or use the timestamps to jump to a specific section. Thanks for listening! We’ll be back for another show every other Thursday.

Today’s Rundown:

[1:00] – Benefits of rolling 401k

[4:08] – Tax implications

[5:12] – Options while working

[6:46] – Matching funds

[7:30] – What investments?