What Is A 401 Account
A 401 plan, named for the section of tax code that governs it, is a retirement plan sponsored by an employer, allowing employees to save a portion of their paycheck for retirement.
The advantage to employees of saving with a 401 plan is they are able to save funds they have earned, before taxes are deducted from a paycheck.
Many employers offer a company match meaning whatever the employee contributes, the company matches.
Although 401 plans were originally born as a supplement to pension plans, they are now often the sole retirement plans offered at companies.
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If You Find The Money
What to do with your 401 funds when you find the account largely depends on where you find it.
If the account resides in your employers plan, you do have the option to leave the money and the account there just note you can no longer contribute money to it.
To get back in the game with your sidelined 401, roll it over into an individual retirement account or a current employers 401 plan. That way you can put the fund money to work by investing in stocks, bonds and funds that appreciate in value and accumulate more money for your retirement, on a tax-efficient basis.
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Also Check: How To Calculate Employee 401k Match
What Are Your Options For Old Retirement Plans
You generally have four options for dealing with money thats in an employer-sponsored retirement account when youre no longer working at the company:
- Leave the money where it is: Although you might not be able to contribute to the account any longer, you may be able to leave the money in your former employers plan. Sometimes, you may need to meet a minimum account balance to qualify, such as $200 for a TSP or $5,000 for some 401s.
- Transfer funds to a new employer-sponsored plan: If you have a new job with a company that sponsors a retirement plan, you may be able to roll over the money into your new employers plan. When this is an option, compare the previous and new plans fees, terms, and investment options to see which is best.
- Roll over to an individual retirement account: You can also move the money into an individual retirement account . An IRA may give you more control as you can choose where to open the account and invest in a wider range of funds. Its also fairly easy to move from one IRA to another as the account isnt tied to your employer. However, IRAs could have more fees, especially if you dont have a lot of assets and dont qualify for lower-cost investment funds.
- Cash out: You can also take the money out of retirement accounts completely. But unless youre 59½ or older , you may need to pay a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty in addition to income taxes on the money.
Investing For Retirement With Sofi
When can you retire? The answer depends on how much you have saved already, including any money thats in an old 401k account or money youve got stashed in an IRA. SoFi offers both traditional and Roth IRAs to help you build wealth for the future. A traditional IRA offers the benefit of tax-deductible contributions. Meanwhile, a Roth IRA offers tax-free qualified withdrawals in retirement.
If youre ready to take the next step, learn more about investing for retirement with SoFi.
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Your Rights To Additional Information
This final section lists information that was included in your plan’s Form 5500 that’s not in your summary annual report or not covered there in as much detail. You can request the entire report or just the parts that are of interest to you. The additional information may include, for example, anaccountant’s report, details on payments to service providers, a description of the plan’s investment assets, and other data.
In this case, your employer is allowed to charge you for photocopying and those charges will be listed here.
If your employer decides to terminate its 401 plan, all of the money in your account will become fully vested as of that date.
Call Your Old Employer
If you suspect you have missing 401 funds or even if you’re not sure, it’s still a good idea to contact old employers and ask them to check if they’re holding your old account. Your former company will have records of you actually participating in a 401 plan.
You’ll either need to provide or confirm your Social Security number and the dates of your employment, but if you can, you’ll have found the fastest way to dig up a missing 401.
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What Happens To Old 401s
401 administrators have different procedures for what to do with left behind accounts. Depending on the amount, they could be distributed directly to you, transferred to an IRA on your behalf, or sent to a separate holding account until you claim them.
Unwilling to bear the burden of maintaining vast amounts of accounts from former employees, 401 plans prefer to unload them any way possible. This can make it challenging to find your old 401s.
Leverage The National Registry
The National Registry, run by Pen Check, a retirement plan distribution firm, is a nationwide, secure database listing of retirement plan account balances that have been left unclaimed by former participants of retirement plans.
The site offers an easy, free-of-charge way to locate lost or forgotten employee retirement accounts. You can conduct as many searches as you want, using just your Social Security number. The site is safe, encrypting any information you input on a secure server.
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Inaction Can Be Costly
If you have left money behind, it would behoove you to track it down. The average balance in forgotten accounts is $55,400. Over a lifetime, says Capitalize, failure to reclaim these assets could cost individuals as much as $700,000 in retirement savings, an estimate based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Census Bureau, 401 record-keepers, IRAs and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Forgetting about old 401s, and how much money is in them, is very common, says Kashif Ahmed, a CFP at American Private Wealth in Bedford, Massachusetts. Recently, we uncovered one for a client that had more than triple what she thought it had. Youve worked for this money, so its important to locate it and keep building it, says Tess Zigo, a CFP at Emerge Wealth Strategies in Palm Harbor, Florida. I’ve seen many young folks believe it or not who have old accounts sitting in money market funds not earning a dime.
Retirement Funds Are Different
They are not turned over to the state, which means, its possible that nothing will happen to your money until something happens with your company ).
A common scenario is when you leave a company and move, perhaps you even change your email address.
Perhaps months or even years have gone by, or youve moved to the other side of the country. Then something happens with your employer and they need to contact you for instructions of what to do with your account.
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How To Find Out If I Have A 401
The best way to make sure you donât lose track of your 401 is to periodically keep tabs on it. Although, checking your retirement accounts too frequently can lead to overkill and alarm if the market takes a dive. Aim for quarterly or semi-annual checks of your funds to make sure everything is in order.
Actively managing your 401 is a good habit to get into. Making sure your retirement accounts are being properly funded and youâre on track to meet your retirement goals should be etched into your overall personal finance plan.
However, if youâve let it slip for the past couple of years, no need to worry. Contact your human resources department to get information on how you can monitor your account.
You may be given access to an online portal for you to log in and manage your account.
Verify your statements are being sent to the correct address. Bookmark the account information so you always know where to log into your account from. Also, consider updating your login and password to make sure your account is more secure.
Track Down Old 401 Plan Statements
The first thing you can do to find money held in forgotten 401 accounts is to go through old plan statements you may have. The statements could have come in the mail or you may have received them electronically through email.
Finding these statements makes it easier to know which employers you were at during the period when you had the 401 plan and can help you determine who to contact to access your account. You can also check with former co-workers who are still with the company to see who you should get in touch with.
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Ways Of Finding My Old 401ks Including Using Ssn
If youâve ever left a job and wondered âWhere is my 401?â, youâre not alone. Locating 401âs is complicated. Thus, billions of dollars are left behind each year. Beagle can help track down your money.
Contributing to an employer-sponsored 401 plan is a great way to build wealth for retirement especially if youâre receiving a match from your company. The problem is they are tied to an individual employer. We forget about them, leave that company, and one day we realize âOh yeah! Where is my 401?â
A 401 can be in a few different places. Most commonly it could be with your previous employers, an IRA they transferred your funds to after you left, or mailed to the address they had on file.
Believe it or not, Americans unknowingly abandoned $100 billion worth of unclaimed 401 accounts. According to a US Labor Department study, the average worker will have had about 12 different jobs before they turn 40. So itâs easy to see how we can lose track of so much 401 money.
To find your old 401s, you can contact your former employers, locate an old 401 statement, search unclaimed asset database in different states, query 401 providers using your social security number or better yet, get some help to find your 401 accounts from companies like Beagle.
Look For Contact Information
If you don’t know how to contact your former employer — perhaps the company no longer exists or it was acquired or merged with another company — see if you have any old 401 statements. These should have contact information to help put you in touch with the plan administrator.
If you don’t have an old 401 statement handy or yours doesn’t tell you what you need to know, visit the U.S. Department of Labor website and look up your employer. There you should find your old retirement account’s tax return, known as Form 5500. That will most likely have contact information for your 401’s plan administrator.
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Convert To A Roth Ira
If your old 401 is funded with pre-tax dollars, you may decide to convert it into a Roth IRA. You will pay income taxes on the conversion amount but can make tax-free withdrawals in retirement. Despite the upfront tax hit, this conversion doesnt count against your IRA contribution limits. In addition, youre no longer subject to required minimum distributions . There are two different ways to convert your 401.
Direct Roth IRA Conversion: Your Quickest Option
The easiest way is to see if your IRA provider can directly transfer your traditional 401 balance to your Roth IRA. If you dont want to convert the entire amount, see if your 401 administrator supports two direct transfers. If so, your second transfer rolls your remaining balance into a traditional rollover IRA. These funds wont incur a tax charge until you schedule a distribution or convert them into a Roth later.
Indirect Roth IRA Conversion: The Time-Consuming Way
If you cannot make two direct transfers, you must first rollover your 401 to a traditional IRA. Then, you must wait at least 60 days before requesting a Roth conversion for your desired balance.
Tip: You may decide to keep a traditional IRA if youre nearing retirement, as a Roth conversion resets the early withdrawal clock. Unfortunately, current tax rules require waiting five years before taking penalty-free withdrawals from your new account, even if youre at least 59 ½ years old.
Why You Should Recover Your Old 401k
Theres a simple reason why you should attempt to recover a lost 401k account: Its your money. Whether your old 401k plan holds a lot of money or a little, every penny counts when staying on track with your retirement savings.
Another important point to consider: If youve changed jobs multiple times, its possible that you could have more than one lost 401k and taken together, that money could make a surprising difference to your nest egg.
Last, if you were lucky to have an employer that offered a matching 401 contribution, your missing account may have more money in them than you think. For example, a common employer match is 50%, up to the first 6% of your salary. If you dont make an effort to find old 401k accounts, youre missing out on that free money as well.
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Finding Old Retirement Accounts
You may want to start by contacting your former employers and the plan administrators, the companies that ran the retirement plan. Sometimes, youll find that your retirement account is still there and chugging along as is, hopefully growing in value over time. If you want, you may be able to leave it there, although update the company with your current contact information so it can let you know about any important changes.
However, its not always that easy. If your account had less than $5,000 in it when you left, the plan administrator can transfer the funds to an individual retirement account that was set up in your name. If it had less than $1,000, the company may have tried to send you a check for the amount to the address it had on file. You may also have trouble tracking down the account if the company went bankrupt or switched plan administrators, leaving it up to you to figure out who is holding onto the money now.
One thing is certainother companies dont get to keep your money. If a company cant figure out how to contact you, it has to turn unclaimed funds over to state agencies. You can start searching for your unclaimed funds in these databases:
Once you find your account or money, youll still need to decide what to do with it.
Option : Move The Money To An Ira
If you’re not able to transfer the funds to your current 401 or you don’t want to, you can roll over the funds to an IRA instead. The process is the same as doing a rollover to a new 401, and you still have the choice between a direct or indirect rollover.
You’ll need to set up a new IRA with any broker if you don’t already have one. Make sure you choose an IRA that’s taxed the same way as your old 401 funds. Most 401s are tax-deferred, which means your contributions reduce your taxable income in the year you make them, but you pay taxes on your withdrawals in retirement. You want a traditional IRA in this case because the government taxes these funds the same way.
If you had a Roth 401, you want a Roth IRA. Both of these accounts give you tax-free withdrawals in retirement if you pay taxes on your contributions the year you make them.
In most cases, losing track of your old 401 doesn’t mean the money is gone for good. But finding it is only half the challenge. You must also decide where to keep those funds going forward so they’ll be most useful to you. Think the decision through carefully, then follow the steps above.
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