Thursday, August 25, 2011

I'm 34 about to rollover my 401k to a new employer. What do I ...

If you are moving to a new employer, you do not have to roll your 401(k) to the new employer. You can instead roll your old 401(k) into a rollover IRA anywhere you want including Fidelity. By doing so, you will not be limited to the investment choices of a particular 401(k) plan. This could allow you better diversification.

Small 401(k) plans often have higher expenses since they often pay for the plan adminstrative expenses out of mutual fund expenses. Although if you work for a large company, the reverse may be true. Sometimes 401(k) plans provide access to institutional share classes not available to retail investors. Although, you rarely are offered as cost-effective options as are available at Vanguard. Vanguard is my favorite fund family of funds.

Each time you change jobs, you can roll 401(k) accumulations over to your IRA and build a nicely diversified portfolio over time.

If you roll into an IRA, you can then convert to a Roth IRA which may or may not be beneficial depending on your circumstances.

Leaving it in the 401(k) may also alow you to avoid the required minimum distribution at age 70 1/2 if you are still employed at that time. However, that benefit is rarely used since most are retired by that age. Still, it preserves an option which is never bad.

That said, Fidelity is a very good family of funds and you have decent choices here so rolling it over to your new employer could keep you life simpler. If you have a small balance rolling over is likely a better choice since adding the complexity of another account is not worth it for small dollars.

The Fidelity Freedom 2035 is not as conservative as you may think. It currently holds 80% equity and is diversified among 22 Fidelity funds including US, foreign, large and small, value and growth. This fund will become more conservative as you age and is a reasonable low maintenance approach.

At your age, you could make the case for a more aggressive approach, however the equity options provided here are all US. Putting it all in the US equity index is not a bad choice as another has suggested. Not as diversified as the Freedom 2035, more aggressive in its allocation to equities, but the Freedom may compensate a bit in allocation to more aggressive strategies like small and value.

Fidelity Freedom also likely has a higher expense ratio than the US equity Index fund depending on exactly what fund that is and which share class of the Fidelity Freedom fund is available to you.

The most important considerations are first keep it in a 401(k) or IRA to defer the tax as long as possible and avoid the 10% early distribution penalty, and second stick to a consistent investment strategy over time.

Source: http://rothira.solve-up.com/roth-ira/im-34-about-to-rollover-my-401k-to-a-new-employer-what-do-i-place-my-fidelity-investment-elections-into/

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