Do I Have An Old 401k

How To Find An Old : 7 Ways

People prone to leaving things behind usually dont lose a 401 account, but it happens more often than you think especially if you dont have a great deal of cash stashed away in a 401.

Data from Plan Sponsor Council of America shows that 58% of 401 transfer balances are between $1,000 and $5,000 when a career professional leaves an employer. Thats not an insignificant range of money, but its money you could have working for you, if you could only find it.

Additionally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office states that over 25 million Americans with cash in a 401 or other employer retirement plan left that money behind when they moved on to greener career pastures.

People leave old 401 accounts behind for many reasons. The account holder may have engaged in a string of job-hopping experiences and lost an old retirement account in the shuffle. Or, the 401 account holders company merged with another firm, was bought out, or went bankrupt.

You might even automatically have been enrolled in an old 401 company by a firm you only spent a year or so working at, didnt realize it, and completely missed bringing the 401 account along with you to your next job.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, how do you find the money you lost in an old 401 account and what do you do with it when you get it back?

There are plenty of ways to get the job done. Lets take a closer look.

What To Do With Your Old 401

What should you do with your old 401 when moving jobs?

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“What should I do with my old 401” is one of the most common questions I get asked by new financial planning clients. Answering this question is often one of the biggest financial decisions you need to make when switching jobs. You essentially have four options to choose from, keep your old 401 where it is, rollover your 401 to an IRA, rollover your old 401 to your current 401, or cash out your retirement plan.

There are a few things to consider when making this choice, including your age, your 401 balance, your investing knowledge, and the investment options in both your old and new retirement plans.

Roll It Over To Your New Employer

If youve switched jobs, see if your new employer offers a 401, when you are eligible to participate, and if it allows rollovers. Many employers require new employees to put in a certain number of days of service before they can enroll in a retirement savings plan. Make sure that your new 401 account is active and ready to receive contributions before you roll over your old account.

Once you are enrolled in a plan with your new employer, its simple to roll over your old 401. You can elect to have the administrator of the old plan deposit the balance of your account directly into the new plan by simply filling out some paperwork. This is called a direct transfer, made from custodian to custodian, and it saves you any risk of owing taxes or missing a deadline.

Alternatively, you can elect to have the balance of your old account distributed to you in the form of a check, which is called an indirect rollover. You must deposit the funds into your new 401 within 60 days to avoid paying income tax on the entire balance and an additional 10% penalty for early withdrawal if youre younger than age 59½. A major drawback of an indirect rollover is that your old employer is required to withhold 20% of it for federal income tax purposesand possibly state taxes as well.

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Roll It Over Into Your Current Employer’s 401

Another option is rolling the old 401 into your current employer’s 401. This can make it easier to keep track of your retirement accounts and might open up broader investment choices. But be sure you’re aware of how your current employer’s 401 works before transferring money from your old 401 into it.

Discover Where Your Funds May Have Been Transferred

If your former employer does not have your old 401, you can search on the Department of Labors abandoned plan database. You will be able to search for your plan using the information you already have, including your name, your employers name and more. If you had a traditional pension plan and it no longer exists, you can search the U.S. Pension Guaranty Corp. database to find your unclaimed pension.

Finally, you may want to search the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. This service is available nationwide and has records of account balances unclaimed by former retirement plan participants.

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Check A National Plan Database

For 401 plans that have been left with employers for a significant amount of time, companies have the option of sending these accounts off to their stateâs treasury department.

Although not the best option, leaving it with your former employer is an optionâfor now. You shouldnât plan to leave it alone for too long.

Most 401 plans will cash your 401 out and mail it to you if the balance is under $1,000, subjecting it to penalties and taxes. If the balance is over $1,000 but less than $5,000, they can transfer it over to an IRA of their choosing.

Once youâve found an old 401, make a plan to do something with it soon before the planâs administrator does something with it you donât want.

You Could Roll It Over Into A New Retirement Account

There are a couple of reasons why you might not want to leave your old 401 where it is. The first is for your own sanity. The more investment accounts you have, the more logins you have to remember, tax documents you have to wait for, and addresses and beneficiaries and email addresses you have to update when those things change.

The second reason is that when you have all your investments in one place, together, its a lot easier for your advisor to help you make sure that your investment portfolio is properly diversified and forecast whether youre on track to hit your goals, like we do for you at Ellevest.

If youre starting up with a new employer that offers a 401 and their plan allows it, then you might be able to combine them by rolling your old 401 over. A rollover might be a good choice if your new 401 has particularly low fees or unique investment options. But if you dont have access to a new 401, or if you want more choices about what kinds of things you invest in or the fees youll have to pay, then you could roll your 401 over into an IRA instead. Heres an article that lists out the pros and cons of those two options.

There arent really any wrong answers no matter what you do with your old 401, the fact that youre thinking about the options and making a decision means youre looking out for Future You. And thats really what this is all about.

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How Do I Find My Old 401

If you’re not sure where your old 401 is, there are three places it could likely be. Here’s where to find your old 401:

Heres how to start your search:

Contributions And Allocations Are Limited

Contributions to a 401 plan must not exceed certain limits described in the Internal Revenue Code. The limits apply to the total amount of employer contributions, employee elective deferrals and forfeitures credited to the participant’s account during the year. See 401 and Profit-Sharing Plan Contribution Limits.

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Keep Things In Perspective

When it comes to your 401k, its important to keep things in perspective. Yes, it can be disheartening to see the value of your account going down, but its important to remember that this is just a short-term blip. The stock market is notoriously volatile, and there will always be ups and downs.

If you panicked and sold off all of your assets every time the market took a dip, you would never make any money. So, try to take a long-term view of your 401k and ride out the inevitable ups and downs.

Tracking Down A Lost 401

Its easy to understand why some workers might lose track of an old 401: Those born between 1957 and 1964 held an average of 12.4 jobs before the age of 54, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The more accounts you acquire, the more challenging it is to keep track of them all.

Perhaps this is why there are some 24 million forgotten 401s holding assets in excess of $1.3 trillion.1 Left unattended too long, old accounts can be converted to cashand even transferred to the state as unclaimed propertyforgoing their future growth potential.

If youre among those with misplaced savings, heres how to locate and retrieve them:

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How To Find Previous 401k Accounts

Many employers automatically deduct 401 plan contributions directly from their employees paychecks. This makes it easy for an employee to forget about his 401 plan when he changes jobs or moves to another location. If you stop contributing to a 401 plan because you changed employers, the money stays in your account until you cash out the plan or transfer the money to a new 401 plan. Finding all of your old 401 plans will help to give you a clearer idea of how much money you have for your retirement nest egg.

Contact the human resources or benefits manager at all of your previous places of employment. The administrator of the 401 plan will have access to your account information. Give the administrator the required information to find your account, such as your social security number. The administrator will give you your 401 account information and all relevant contact and transfer information.

Check your personal financial files if they are available. Statements from 401 plans and old pay stubs are examples of financial files that will contain information about your old 401 accounts. Use the contact numbers on the statements to inquire about the status of your 401 accounts.

References

Contact Your Old Employer About Your Old 401

Employers will try to track down a departed employee who left money behind in an old 401, but their efforts are only as good as the information they have on file. Beyond providing 30 to 60 days notice of their intentions, there are no laws that say how hard they have to look or for how long.

If its been a while since youve heard from your former company, or if youve moved or misplaced the notices they sent, start by contacting your former companys human resources department or find an old 401 account statement and contact the plan administrator, the financial firm that held the account and sent you updates.

You may be allowed to leave your money in your old plan, but you might not want to.

If there was more than $5,000 in your retirement account when you left, theres a good chance that your money is still in your workplace account. You may be allowed to leave it there for as long as you like until youre age 72, when the IRS requires you to start taking distributions, but you might not want to. Heres how to decide whether to keep your money in an old 401.

The good news if a new IRA was opened for the rollover: Your money retains its tax-protected status. The bad: You have to find the new trustee.

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Follow These Steps With Help If You Need It

At the same time, finding your old accounts may be challenging for several reasons. In the first year of the pandemic, for example, hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses closed permanently. In addition, says Zigo, you may have moved, or changed your email address, so your previous employer cant find you. Your old 401 plan may have changed sponsors. One of my clients has tried 10 times to reach a previous sponsor. It can be a frustrating process. And the bigger the hurdle, the less likely we are to try, she says. But help is available. A qualified financial planner can guide you through the following steps.

1. Take stock of your accounts

First, make a list that includes every employer where you contributed to a 401, suggests Charles Sachs, a CFP at Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC in Miami, Florida. Next, call each one to see if they still have an account in your name, and update your contact information, if needed. Reaching out to them is the only way to find out where you stand, Sachs says. Its common for our clients to discover one or two old plans where they still have funds.

2. If a company has closed, check these websites

You can search for your money, which may be considered unclaimed property, at databases such as unclaimed.org and missingmoney.com. Both have links to state treasurers, comptrollers or other officials who update their lists of unclaimed assets regularly.

3. Rollover the money directly to avoid expensive withholding

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The above article is intended to provide generalized financial information designed to educate a broad segment of the public it does not give personalized tax, investment, legal, or other business and professional advice. Before taking any action, you should always seek the assistance of a professional who knows your particular situation for advice on taxes, your investments, the law, or any other business and professional matters that affect you and/or your business.

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Next Steps To Consider

This information is intended to be educational and is not tailored to the investment needs of any specific investor.

Recently enacted legislation made a number of changes to the rules regarding defined contribution, defined benefit, and/or individual retirement plans and 529 plans. Information herein may refer to or be based on certain rules in effect prior to this legislation and current rules may differ. As always, before making any decisions about your retirement planning or withdrawals, you should consult with your personal tax advisor.

Fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice. The information herein is general and educational in nature and should not be considered legal or tax advice. Tax laws and regulations are complex and subject to change, which can materially impact investment results. Fidelity cannot guarantee that the information herein is accurate, complete, or timely. Fidelity makes no warranties with regard to such information or results obtained by its use, and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or any tax position taken in reliance on, such information. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific situation.

Be sure to consider all your available options and the applicable fees and features of each before moving your retirement assets.

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917

Keep Tabs On The Old 401

If you decide to leave an account with a former employer, keep up with both the account and the company. People change jobs a lot more than they used to, says Peggy Cabaniss, retired co-founder of HC Financial Advisors in Lafayette, California. So its easy to have this string of accounts out there in never-never land.

Cabaniss recalls one client who left an account behind after a job change. Fifteen years later, the company had gone bankrupt. While the account was protected and the money still intact, getting the required company officials and fund custodians to sign off on moving it was a protracted paperwork nightmare, she says.

When people leave this stuff behind, the biggest problem is that its not consolidated or watched, says Cabaniss.

If you do leave an account with a former employer, keep reading your statements, keep up with the paperwork related to your account, keep an eye on the companys performance and be sure to keep your address current with the 401 plan sponsor.

Keeping on top of how the plan is performing is very important as you may later decide to do something different with your hard-earned money.

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What To Do With An Old 401 4 Choices To Consider

Learn about the available choices on what to do with a 401 held at with a former employer.

• Take stock of your old 401 plans to ensure you maximize your retirement savings

• Understand potential penalties for early withdrawals and why cashing out is the least desirable option

• Consider any fees and underlying funds as they may impact your savings

One of the things you have to consider when changing jobs or nearing retirement is what to do with your old workplace savings plan.

The more frequently youve changed jobs, the greater the chance that you may still have an old 401 with a former employer, maybe even one you forgot about over time. If you suspect you might have a lost 401, you can search online for unclaimed retirement benefits. But perhaps the best way to find an old 401 is the direct approachcontact the HR department at your former company to see if they can help. If the company was sold or merged, contact the current parent company, as your old 401 was likely merged into the new entitys 401 plan.