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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

Sadly, you can only roll it over during a 'qualifying event' which is either you leave the company, the company drops the 401k, or reach the minimum age for disbursement. The most common case is people leaving the company.

I've known too many people who change jobs and just leave the 401k they had in their previous job with the company that is still managing the 401k for the old company. There can be (and often are) different rules for former employees that can be (and sometimes are) much more advantageous to the bank. When I left Sun the 401k moved all of the funds into a 'guaranteed interest' fund (aka a bond fund) with a 3% management fee. It was pretty egregious.

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That's what I thought. My current strategy is to keep an eye on the total size of our account, hoping it gets big enough to add some better options, or big enough to be worth moving to a cheaper provider.

I wonder what it would take to add a brokerage window (self-directed) option?

All you can really do is pressure the company into picking a better 401k provider (Vanguard is a good bet).

A self-directed option in a 401k isn't really possible as far as I'm aware, since you're limited to mutual funds. They don't want people "gambling" with their 401k money by betting on individual stocks.

Still, given the tax advantages, you're likely to come out ahead in the long run in a 401k compared to a taxable brokerage account. Just pick the funds with the lowest fees.

Self directed options in 401ks are definitely available and if your 401k plan doesn't offer it you should be raising a stink with hr. I'm coming to the conclusion that if your plan doesn't offer it then your company either got screwed by the salesman or are incompetent.

Some 401k programs do allow for "in-service" rollovers which would allow you to move the funds to an IRA before you leave your job. Those that allow this aren't all that common, but it is worth checking into.

There's no such thing as a 'qualifying event' for a rollover. See for yourself: 'http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc413.html

Don't confuse the "plan documents" (aka the terms of service written by the bankers with their hands in your pocket) with the IRS regs. Some plans do allow in-service rollovers, and to be sure, you should make a request in writing.

When rolling over money, have the money sent directly to the other retirement account. If the check comes to you first, then the payer has to withhold 20%, which you won't get back until after you file your taxes and prove the funds were in fact rolled over. And, of course, you would need to 'front' that 20% in order to get the whole amount rolled!

>There's no such thing as a 'qualifying event' for a rollover.

Publication 560 defines when distributions from 401(k) plans can be taken (page 18): http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p560.pdf

A rollover is nothing but a distribution and re-deposit into a qualifying account.

Having done this four times, in each case the people managing the 401k sent me the check made out to my IRA's bank, with the notation FBO me, aka "For The Benefit Of" and each case my bank cashes the check and transfers the proceeds into my IRA.

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