Keep Tabs On The Old 401
If you decide to leave an account with a former employer, keep up with both the account and the company. People change jobs a lot more than they used to, says Peggy Cabaniss, retired co-founder of HC Financial Advisors in Lafayette, California. So its easy to have this string of accounts out there in never-never land.
Cabaniss recalls one client who left an account behind after a job change. Fifteen years later, the company had gone bankrupt. While the account was protected and the money still intact, getting the required company officials and fund custodians to sign off on moving it was a protracted paperwork nightmare, she says.
When people leave this stuff behind, the biggest problem is that its not consolidated or watched, says Cabaniss.
If you do leave an account with a former employer, keep reading your statements, keep up with the paperwork related to your account, keep an eye on the companys performance and be sure to keep your address current with the 401 plan sponsor.
Keeping on top of how the plan is performing is very important as you may later decide to do something different with your hard-earned money.
K And Your Tax Burden
One of the best things about a 401 k is that the money in these accounts is not subject to tax. With an IRA, you can save and invest money without having to worry about the tax burden. However, this only applies while the money remains in your IRA. It is also not uncommon to have more than one IRA, so it may help to learn how many IRA you can have and how it affects your 401k. If you remove the money or roll it into another account, it becomes part of your taxable estate. This is why it’s important that you make decisions regarding your 401 k wisely and don’t rush into anything.
It’s crucial that you educate your beneficiaries on how your 401 k works, too. If you pass away before you’ve retired, the company you work for ensures that your beneficiary gets access to your 401 k. However, you have to make sure that your beneficiary understands how this works. Your 401 k money may be subject to income tax if it’s removed from your IRA. If the balance in your account is substantial, a lump distribution could result in substantial income taxes for your beneficiary.
If your beneficiary wants to avoid paying tax on all of your 401 k at once, it’s important that they take this into consideration. You have to make sure they understand all of the options that are available. It’s not necessary to transfer all of the money in an IRA at once, for example. Distribution can be spread out into multiple distributions over an extended period.
Contact The 401 Plan Administrator
If your employer is no longer around, try getting in touch with the plan administrator, which may be listed on an old statement.
If youre unable to find an old statement, you still may be able to find the administrator by searching for the retirement plans tax return, known as Form 5500.
You can find a 5500s by the searching the name of your former employer at www.efast.dol.gov.
If you locate a Form 5500 for an old plan, it should have the contact information on it.
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Required Documents And Information
The information or the documents an employee should keep ready to submit an EPF transfer online include:
- Revised Form 13
- PF Account Number
- Bank account details of the salary account
An employee needs to meet the above requirements to proceed with an online claim submission in the EPFO portal. If not then an employee can visit the e-SEWA portal which is managed by the EPFO to seed the KYC and other details required.
How The Rollover Is Done Is Important Too
Whether you pick an IRA for your rollover or choose to go with your new employer’s plan, consider a direct rolloverthats when one financial institution sends a check directly to the other financial institution. The check would be made out to the bank or brokerage firm with instructions to roll the money into your IRA or 401.
The alternative, having a check made payable to you, is not a good option in this case. If the check is made payable directly to you, your employer is required by the IRS to withhold 20% for taxes. As if that wouldn’t be bad enoughyou only have 60 days from the time of a withdrawal to put the money back into a tax-advantaged account like a 401 or IRA. That means if you want the full value of your former account to stay in the tax-advantaged confines of a retirement account, you’d have to come up with the 20% that was withheld and put it into your new account.
If you’re not able to make up the 20%, not only will you lose the potential tax-free or tax-deferred growth on that money but you may also owe a 10% penalty if you’re under age 59½ because the IRS would consider the tax withholding an early withdrawal from your account. So, to make a long story short, do pay attention to the details when rolling over your 401.
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Leave Your 401 Behind
If your 401 has a balance of at least $5,000, you can let the money continue to grow temporarily or permanently in your former employer’s plan. Although this can be a good option if the fund is currently performing well, it has drawbacks that can affect your investment over the long-term. You will not be able to make any further contributions, and some plans charge former employees additional maintenance fees. In addition, some may stop monitoring funds left with an old employer. This could have a significant negative affect if the plan starts performing poorly.
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Your best bet is to visit FreeERISA.com, which can help you track down your old 401 using the following website tools:
- Code search: Find employee benefit and retirement plan filings by location.
- Dynamic name search: Find 5500s even if the plan sponsor’s name changed.
- Instant View: See benefit filings right in your browser instantly.
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Rolling Over Your 401k
If you roll over your 401k, you can do it directly from your 401k plan to your new IRA account. This way no taxes are withheld. Set up an IRA with the financial institution of your choice, and its representative will help you contact the institution that manages your 401k plan to request a direct rollover. When you do the rollover, you can choose to have a percentage of the account distributed to you in the form of a check, but this part is subject to tax and penalties. You can also withdraw cash from your IRA after you roll over funds, but you’ll pay taxes and the 10 percent penalty until you reach the age of 59 and six months.
Tips For Collecting Your Pension
Some people actually do lose track of the pension they had contributed to during their tenure at an old job. The company might even have merged with another one, changed their name, or moved to a different location, but this doesnt mean that you lost your contributions. These are rightfully your savings that you must reclaim from the employer.
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Option : Move The Money To Your New 401
If you have a new job with a new 401, your current employer may permit you to roll over your old 401 funds into your new account. However, not all plans allow this, so check with your company’s HR department or plan administrator to see if it’s an option for you.
If it is and you decide it’s your best move, you must choose between a direct and an indirect rollover. Direct rollovers are the better choice because you don’t handle the money at all. You just fill out a form telling your old plan administrator where to send the funds and they take care of it for you.
With an indirect rollover, the plan administrator cuts you a check for the funds in your account and you place that money into your new account. But if you fail to do this within 60 days of cashing out your old account, the government considers it a distribution and taxes you on that money for the year.
Before you decide to move your money to your new 401, make sure you like your investment options and are comfortable with the fees your new 401 charges. Many employers don’t allow you to transfer money out of your 401 if you’re a current employee, so once you transfer your old 401 funds to your new account, they could be stuck there, at least until you leave your current job.
Organize All Of The Paperwork
You will need to have all of your paperwork from the previous employer well organized to show proof that you worked there. This should include your contract letter, your exit letter, and even your participation in the pension plan. In addition, payslips and W-2 forms that show your employment dates and earnings are also helpful. These will also show the amount of money you contributed to the pension plan. When you signed up for the social security plan, you must have received some notice in the mail as well, with your employer details. All of these documents will help you collect your money.
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Contact Your Old Employer
Your first step should be to contact your former employer. The human resources department should have a record of your account. If your account was rolled over to an IRA for your benefit, your former employer should be able to give you information about the institution holding the IRA funds. If your account is still in the companys retirement plan, your former employer can provide you with distribution forms to receive your money.
That Couple Of Hundred A Month Can Really Add Up
Fred Yager
It wasnt too long ago when a former colleague and I werereminiscing about the days when we both worked for the same wireservice and found ourselves talking about the meager monthlypension we would be receiving when we turned 65 or 66. My sharecame in at less than $200 a month and I commented that every littlebit helps.
Then I read an article on CBS MoneyWatch and realized $200 amonth is $2,400 a year and that if I continue to live another 25years that totals $60,000. Suddenly that $200 a month didntsound so “little.” Then I realized I didnt know how to getin touch with at my former employer to make sure I received that$200 a month.
According to Steve Vernon, writing for MoneyWatch, my first step should be to contactthe human resources department and they should be able to direct meto the right person in charge of the pension plan known as the planadministrator. They are usually reachable by phone or email.
Fortunately, my former employer was still in business. But whatif you worked for a company that had a pension but went bankrupt orout of business? Vernon says that might take a little more digging.In a bankruptcy filing you should be able to find out who has takenover the pension plan.
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Automatic Ira Rollovers For Non
When employees leave a company with a defined contribution retirement plan such as a 401, the majority rollover plan benefits to other tax-qualified accounts themselves. A significant number neglect to do so, however, allowing assets to remain in the plan after employment ends. The Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001 amended the IRS code to allow plan sponsors to establish Rollover IRAs for missing and non-responsive plan participants with balances less than $5000.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor published guidelines establishing safe harbor provisions for rollover distributions that would satisfy the plan sponsor’s fiduciary responsibilities to participants under ERISA. The plan sponsor must provide information about the automatic rollover process in the Summary Plan Description or Summary of Material Modification given participants. They must enter into a written rollover agreement with an IRA provider stipulating the amount of the initial investment, as well as services to be provided, fees and expenses.
The rollover IRA must be established at a state or federally regulated financial institution, such as a bank or credit union, trust or insurance company. The IRA must be rolled over to an investment vehicle that preserves principal, minimizes risk
Use Additional Government Document Recovery Tools
Lots of folks say the federal government is beholden to excessive paperwork and, in many ways, those people are right. But your hunt for an old 401 isn’t a good example of that mindset.
Exhibit “A” is the U.S. Department of Labor’s Abandoned Plan Database. The database can tell you if your company’s old 401 plan is still up and running, has been deep-sixed, or is being held by an outside administrator who can steer you to your old 401 account.
When using the website, the more information you can provide, the better. Your best bets include using the plan’s name, the name of your old employer, the city and state where the company resided, and the appropriate zip code.
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What Type Of Ira Should I Open
During the process of opening your new account, you may get asked which type of IRA youd like to open. You might see the following options: Rollover IRA, Traditional IRA, or Roth IRA. Heres how to pick the right one:
- If you had a Traditional 401 pick a Rollover IRA or, if thats not available, Traditional IRA or, if thats not available, just IRA. The only exception would be if youre considering a Roth conversion, but this is an advanced tax planning strategy that most people dont need to worry about.
- If you had a Roth 401 pick a Roth IRA. Youll need to match the Roth 401 to a Roth IRA for tax reasons.
- If your 401 has mixed assets youll need to open two IRAs, one Roth and one Traditional to for their respective assets.
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Ways To Manage Old Employer
If youre like most Americans, youve changed employers a few times throughout your working career. In fact, the average person switches jobs 12 times during his or her lifetime!
While job-hopping can get you a variety of experience, it can also create some complexity managing your finances specifically when it comes to the money youve saved in employer-sponsored retirement plans such as a 401 or profit-sharing plan.
Every time you leave a job where you contributed money to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, you are faced with the dilemma of determining how to handle those old plans. Naturally, each time you must ask yourself: what should I do with this account?
Generally, you have four options.
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Search Unclaimed Assets Databases
If your search is still coming up empty, your former employer has folded or was bought by another company, youâre not out of luck yet.
It may take a little more effort and research but there are many national databases that can help you track down your old 401 accounts:
- The Department of Laborâs Abandoned Plan database can help you identify what happened to your old plan and the contact information of the current administrator
- The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits allows you to do a free search for any unclaimed retirement money using just your Social Security number
- FreeERISA is another free resource to search for any old account information that has been filed with the federal government
- The Securities and Exchange Commissionâs website or your stateâs Secretary of State can provide more information on your previous employer
Option : Leave It Where It Is
You don’t have to move the money out of your old 401 if you don’t want to. You won’t ever lose the funds provided you don’t lose track of your old account again. But this option is usually the least desirable.
For one, it’s more difficult to manage your retirement savings when they’re spread out over many accounts. You also get stuck paying whatever your old 401’s fees were, and these can be higher than what you’d pay if you moved your money to an individual retirement account, for example.
But if you like your plan’s investment options and the fees aren’t too high, you could consider leaving your old 401 funds where they are. Just make careful note of how to access them again so you don’t forget.
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If You Have An Outstanding 401k Loan
Did you borrow any money from your 401? If you did and youre leaving the company, voluntarily or otherwise, you have the option to repay the loan to an IRA and you have until your personal tax return deadline of the following year to contribute that repayment amount to an IRA explains Mat Sorensen, CEO of Directed IRA and Directed Trust Company, thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
If you cant pay the loan back in the allotted time, the plan will reduce your vested account balance in order to recoup the unpaid amount, says Ian Berger, IRA Analyst with IRAHelp.com and a colleague of Ed Slott, author of The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb.This is called a loan offset.
I think that many people forget that if they have a loan outstanding, it has to be paid, says Wayne Bogosian, co-author of The Complete Idiots Guide to 401 Plans.
Fail to repay it and the loan amount will count as income, potentially subject to tax, plus youll pay an additional penalty equal to 10 percent of the sum you borrowed if youre younger than age 59 ½, he says.
Taking a loan from your 401 is in reality, borrowing from yourself and may be an appropriate decision for some people who are unemployed with no income source, need money for medical expenses, or are purchasing their first home. However there are many things to consider before doing so.
If you cant pay the loan back to your 401, other than the potential tax implications listed above, the options below still apply.
