The Rollover IRA is an incredibly important type of retirement account if you are making a change in employment, whether it is due to an opportunity at a new company or a job loss. The rollover individual retirement account allows you to rollover a 401k to an account that is still tax deferred, but most importantly the rollover IRA will allow you to then re-rollover your retirement money into a new jobs 401k plan in the future. You have the flexibility to put your tax deferred money into whatever retirement account most benefits you in the future.

For this to be possible, the rollover IRA must be kept separate from any other retirement account, such as a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. If your retirement money from the rollover IRA is combined with a traditional IRA, then you will not be able to rollover to 401k when you have a new job. All retirement accounts are not nearly as flexible as the rollover IRA, so it is critical that the funds be in a completely different account.

A common question is whether there is a limit to the amount of money that can be transferred into or rolled out of your rollover IRA account. The answer is no, there is no limit. This means that no matter how much you have saved in your 401k or how well your investments have appreciated over the years, you can transfer everything into your new IRA account, let it appreciate more without worry, and rollover into 401k of your new job at your leisure.

This flexibility with your retirement account funds allows you to pick the best investment option for your money. If the rollover IRA has better investment choices than the 401k with your new employer, you are not required to move the funds. Further into the future, another new employer’s retirement plan might be a better choice, so you can choose to rollover into their 401k at that time. The name of the game here is getting the best returns and having the most flexibility with your retirement funds.

To avoid any tax penalties while completing the retirement account rollover, it is imperative that the funds from your old 401k be distributed directly into your new rollover IRA. If for some reason the retirement funds have been given to you personally, then you have 60 days to deposit the entire amount of retirement money into the new rollover IRA. Otherwise, you will be charged a penalty of 10% of your retirement account plus all fees and taxes the IRS requires for people under 59 ½ who have accessed their tax deferred money. Obviously, this is something that must be avoided at all costs, and the reason that everyone is recommended to have funds transferred directly from one tax deferred account to another.

This concludes Rollover IRA basics. I hope that the insights will help you with your future wealth planning.