Do you look at your 401K expenses?

[Like2Plan]

It's not like you have much of a choice while you are currently employed at a company....
I looked mine up:
DH's: .02% (S&P 500)
Mine: .03% (no matter which investment option you pick)
(I was surprised that DH's were lower than mine. )

If you left your current job, how big of a factor would the expense ratio of your 401K account be when considering a rollover from the 401K into an IRA?

I ran across this nifty expense analyzer:
NASD Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer

[sweeps]

This is a timely thread for me... I just received an email today from the benefits office stating that they always pay 100% of the administrative fees in our 401k and pension plans. Also we do not pay any loads or 12b-1 fees. We are only charged expenses from the underlying funds, which are mostly less than 1%... one as low as 0.04%. Not too shabby.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Like2Plan

If you left your current job, how big of a factor would the expense ratio of your 401K account be when considering a rollover from the 401K into an IRA?

I definitely considered the expenses for DW's 401K. In fact, I had a thread about that recently.

As for a rollover, I would always do the rollover no matter what. I'd much rather have the money under my own control where I could invest it however I wanted to, rather than being limited by the choices offered in the 401k plan.

[Like2Plan]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

As for a rollover, I would always do the rollover no matter what. I'd much rather have the money under my own control where I could invest it however I wanted to, rather than being limited by the choices offered in the 401k plan.

What if you intended to roll it over into exactly the same investment?

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Like2Plan

What if you intended to roll it over into exactly the same investment?

Tougher call, but I'd probably still lean toward rolling it over. Why? I'd rather have the money under my control. Maybe right now you want the same investments, but 6 months or a year or two down the line, you may want to diversify or change things and it is just easier to do in a self-directed account.

[Like2Plan]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Tougher call, but I'd probably still lean toward rolling it over. Why? I'd rather have the money under my control. Maybe right now you want the same investments, but 6 months or a year or two down the line, you may want to diversify or change things and it is just easier to do in a self-directed account.

Is there a time limit on rolling over your 401K to an IRA after you leave?
(I thought you could just let it ride and convert it at a later date, if you wanted.)

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Like2Plan

Is there a time limit on rolling over your 401K to an IRA after you leave?

I think it depends on the company. I'm not sure if there are any actual legal limits. Anybody else know?

[humandraydel]

There are definitely no legal limits. You can leave it in as long as you want and convert it whenever you want.

I actually just changed jobs but I left my money in the 401k with the old company since the fund selection is pretty good. Another reason is that I have some "after tax" dollars in the 401k and they are currently growing tax deferred, however, if I roll over the IRA, I have to withdraw the after tax dollars.