mrken30

Interesting article about not rolling over 401k into an IRA.

Be Wary of Advice to Do an IRA Rollover

Interestingly this article from the same magazine gives almost the opposite advice

401(k) or IRA Rollover: Which Is Best for You When You Change Jobs?

nun

There are good and bad 401ks and IRAs. People need to fully understand the characteristics of each to make sensible decisions.

Some 401ks still have Stable Value funds which can be useful and also offer penalty free withdrawals at age 55 if you have left the company.

An IRA with someone like Vanguard will offer many low cost funds which might be better than the 401k funds offered.

403bs aren't inherently more difficult to rollover than a 401k, but some of the investments can be structured as variable annuities. With TIAA-CREF their variable annuities charge around 0.5% fees and it's simple to rollover to an IRA where you can get 0.1% fees. However, if you have a TIAA-Traditional fixed annuity it will take 10 years to do the rollover.

mrken30

I think this only applies if you leave the company after age 55. If you leave a company age 50, I don't think you can take penalty free withdrawals at age 55 if you work for another employer.

My 401k , 403b (Non-ERISA) and IRA all have Vanguard funds as an option. I think maybe a lot of plans now value the low cost options.