Should I roll my old 401(k) into an IRA?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. An IRA is one of four destinations for a former employer's plan balance, and it is not automatically the best of them.
The choice turns on things you can check rather than on a general preference: what the old plan costs and offers, whether a new plan will accept the money, whether you might need the account before age 59½, whether there are Roth, after-tax or employer-stock amounts involved, whether a loan is outstanding, and whether moving pretax money into an IRA would raise the tax cost of a future Roth conversion.
Moving the account is rarely urgent. The mistakes that are expensive — a taxable distribution, a lost separation-from-service exception, an unexpectedly taxable conversion later — usually come from moving quickly rather than from waiting.
Reviewed by Bay Area Wealth Advisors. Last reviewed 2026-09-17. Educational information only — not individualized financial, tax or legal advice.