Questions about 401k rollover to IRA

Submitted by netll t3_zzj4kk in personalfinance

Assume I have a 401k account and have AAPL 1,000 shares = 1,000 * $130 = $130,000.

​

Questions:

  1. If this 401k account is rollover to my IRA account, does it rollover 1,000 shares AAPL, or just $130,000 (namely, selling my all AAPL and rollover all money to IRA)?
  2. If it rolls over money, is there any way to roll over investment instruments (e.g., bond, CDs, stock) instead?

​

TIA!

2

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

freddie_the_mercury t1_j2bwn2c wrote

a rollover will liquidate the funds and issue a cash check.

3

TheKarenator t1_j2c2i92 wrote

FYI what you are asking about is an “in kind transfer” and I doubt you can do it in a rollover like this.

1

BuffaloRedshark t1_j2c5rw2 wrote

I rolled over a 401k at fidelity to an IRA. Investments stayed the same.

I later rolled an IRA from another brokerage firm into the fidelity one and same thing, investments stayed the same. Same with some taxable accounts I consolidated to my fidelity taxable account.

I initiated the transfers from fidelity and they handled any of the backend work with the other firms.

1

FourWayFork t1_j2bwv7z wrote

A 401k? Usually (though obviously not always) those are managed for you and you don't have the direct control over individual stocks.

If you had, say, a rollover IRA at ETrade and a rollover IRA at Fidelity and you wanted to move stocks from one to another without selling them, you can definitely so that. But a 401k would be more dependent on what your company let's you do.

With the various ones my wife and I have had with different jobs, we have never been able to buy individual stocks - we just pick out funds - and so there are no individual stocks to roll over.

−1

netll OP t1_j2bxd5e wrote

Yes, you are right. There are a bunch of index funds at my 401k. I dont want to sell, rollover, and rebuy all index funds later.

1

FourWayFork t1_j2bycyc wrote

You would really have to check with them to see what they will let you do. There are too many moving parts for anyone to guess.

I know for a fact that you can move securities from one rollover IRA to another. But even if the general answer for a 401k is yes, you're still going to have to check with your particular 401k provider. (Do they allow you to transfer securities? Are the particular funds that you have even something that can be transferred and not something proprietary? Does your employer block you from transferring securities until you leave the company?)

1

freddie_the_mercury t1_j2bxeql wrote

I can create a brokerage account within my 401k. at the same time I have never seen a rollover that wasnt via a check.

1