old 401(k) To My Roth IRA

[corolla02]

Hi there;
I am about to leave my full-time job for some new part-time job and in the process I will be having some money left in my 401K managed by Merrill Lynch/BOA right now.
So my question, what options do I have with this money? My best bet is to convert it directly to my Roth with Vanguard. I do not know is it possible or not but if it is, what and how I need to do it to achive that.

Thanks for your inputs!!

[zetta]

Call up the company that holds your ROTH IRA and ask. It used to be that you had to roll 401k into a traditional IRA, and then convert that to a ROTH, but I heard on a financial radio show that Congress is changing the law to allow a direct rollover.

Be aware that you will have to pay taxes on the money that you convert -- if you roll over into a traditional IRA there will be no tax bill.

[corolla02]

Call up the company that holds your ROTH IRA and ask. It used to be that you had to roll 401k into a traditional IRA, and then convert that to a ROTH, but I heard on a financial radio show that Congress is changing the law to allow a direct rollover.

Be aware that you will have to pay taxes on the money that you convert -- if you roll over into a traditional IRA there will be no tax bill.

Thanks for your input.

Today is Sunday but anyway I will talk to Vanguard on Monday.
I am aware of tax distribution in the process and because my unique situation, swap full-time for part-time job plus my 401K has been beaten down to 50% of its value, I will be in the lowest tax bracket, so I want to do it next year if possible.

[corolla02]

Here is what I got it today from Vangurd:

A regular representative could not answer my question about direct rollover my 401k to ROTH so he transfered me to an investment tech that had said starting from 2008 you are eligible to do the transfer!!!!