Understanding The Details Of An IRA Rollover?

Answer 1

An individual retirement account (IRA) provides a financial vehicle for retirement savings that has a number of tax benefits. An IRA is similar to a 401k savings account in several ways. One major difference, however, is that a 401k is managed and specifically tied to a single employer. Employers usually require employees who are leaving a company to remove the money from the 401k account so that the employer no longer has to manage the account. One option that is available is for the employee to withdraw the money and to pay penalties and taxes on the total value of the account. A more common and less expensive option is to move the money into an independent IRA.

Moving money from a 401k program into an IRA is known as an IRA rollover. The transfer of money between the accounts is different from moving money between other types of accounts because there are special tax regulations governing each program. Most individuals are only allowed to perform one IRA rollover per year without penalties. Money that is moved into an IRA can almost immediately begin earning a profit through investments. One of the main advantages of moving into an IRA is that the investment options are often very similar to the options available with a 401k.

Moving money from a 401k into an IRA must be performed in a certain way in order to avoid losing some of the money. Money that removed from the 401k must be deposited into the new IRA within 60 days. Money that is not deposited within this time period is taxed as standard income. Penalties might be charged if the transfer of funds is not performed by the custodians of the 401k and the IRA. There is a strict rule that transfers of assets between accounts must be identical when performing an IRA rollover. This means that the account owner cannot take money out of a 401k account and purchase new assets to be deposited into the IRA. Individuals who are earning less than a certain amount each year might be eligible to perform an IRA rollover into a Roth IRA account that can provided added benefits over a traditional IRA.