Finding "orphaned" 401Ks
April 30, 2018 1:29 PM   Subscribe

The financial guy (why am I making this sound like Queer Eye) at my credit union suggested finding my "orphaned" 401Ks to roll over into my IRA.

I have had a number of jobs over the last 15 years, not crazily many but enough that I haven't kept track of everything. Add to this that my financial literacy has tended to come piecemeal--I figured out how buying a house works, e.g., when I bought one. I'm not financially irresponsible (no debt, don't spend what I don't have) but I have been perhaps a bit financially...scattered.

So I don't know what a couple of my older jobs did as far as retirement stuff. Is there a good way to go about finding this out so I can go ahead and roll over what is probably a small but not negligible amount of money to my IRA? Do I need to call, like, the HR department of the very large nonprofit I worked for in 2004 to see if they have stone tablet records of my employ?
posted by Smearcase to Work & Money (3 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here's a pretty detailed answer to "How do I find an old 401k that I think I contributed money to at a former employer?"
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:37 PM on April 30, 2018 [11 favorites]


In general, you should still get yearly (or quarterly) statements from the various brokerages that have your 401(k). Once you've got those accounts identified, it's pretty easy (read: lots of paperwork) to get them centralized into a single "rollover IRA" account.

Were all previous employers offering a 401(k) ? Non-profits tend to be 403(b) and/or some kind of SEP/SIMPLE type plan instead of 401(k).

If any place had a pension plan, that might be a reach out to HR to see if you can get a lump-sum rollover to your IRA.
posted by k5.user at 8:06 AM on May 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks, the place I worked for 7 years had a pension that I did vest in, but at 7 years I assume that means I'll get $10 a month or something. I should look into whether it's better to roll it over.
posted by Smearcase at 9:05 AM on May 1, 2018


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