How to Invest Today

It is often difficult what option you should use to get your funds out of your existing 401k account. One of the major stresses of this process is the uncertainty of what exactly you should be doing. Add this stress to already existing stress of managing your retirement account and the whole process can be rather overwhelming.

Because of the importance of this decision, it is critical that you take the necessary time to research and explore the different options you have to make this 401k transfer. Consulting your financial consultant or tax advisor is always a good idea.

A good financial advisor can direct you towards the type of retirement vehicle that will be best for your account. You can transfer your account to another 401k, a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA, or other retirement vehicle. Your advisor will also know the latest tax laws you should be aware of.

As with many other tax issues, the IRS has complicated the process enough that a tax professional is required to sort through the rules. One of the rules that often traps investors is the 60 day transfer rule.

The 60 day transfer rule was designed to limit the amount of time that you have available to transfer the funds from one account to the other. The Revenue Service wants you to take care of the transaction and not leave the funds out in neverland. The primary reason is that they want you to decide how the tax treatment should be for the transfer.

Regardless of how trivial this rule is, the IRS is rather stringent on the execution of it. Most good financial planners will instruct their clients to prepare for the transfer by making their decisions beforehand. This allows you sufficient time to make all of the fund movements, and ensures that you don’t miss the deadline.

The IRS has been notoriously strict on this 60 day rule. There are cases in which transfers on the 61st day have been rejected by the IRS. There are very few circumstances in which the IRS is lenient on this stipulation.

The only scenario in which the Internal Revenue Service is willing to consider a late transfer is in the case of unusual personal circumstances. These include death, disability, hospitalization, and incarceration. This compassion ruling is not really a good substitute for getting your transfer done in time, and is often associated with a fine for the waiver. The fine is wholly dependent upon the size of the transfer between accounts.

Roger Harrison is an experienced financial planning enthusiast that has extensively studied how to do a 401k rollover to ira and the best ways to transfer your money. Visit him online at the The 401k Rollover Guru for more information on these and other related topics.