Rollover process

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The Rollover Process
When it comes to rollovers, there is a lot of confusion over just what you can and can't do. Here are some guidelines.

• If you want to roll over a company retirement plan to a traditional IRA, you'll need to contact your company's human resource department to obtain a form to do a "direct rollover."
• You'll need to have established a traditional (or "rollover") IRA at any brokerage you choose to receive the proceeds from your company plan.
• Your company will either transfer the funds electronically to your IRA account or send you a check made payable to the new custodian; the funds, in turn, can be deposited into your IRA account.
• If you roll over to a traditional IRA, you will have to start taking required minimum distributions at age 70 1/2. A Roth IRA doesn't require minimum distributions during the owner's lifetim e.
• If you never plan to roll your company retirement distribution into a new company retirement plan, there's no reason why you can't combine it with other traditional IRAs you may already hav e. (As I mentioned above, the one exception would be if bankruptcy is a possibility for you; for details, see )
• You may be able to simplify your life by paring down the number of IRA accounts you hold.
• Once your money has rolled over to an IRA, you can invest in just about anything--stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, etc