401(k) rollover options
 

I'm looking at rolling over a 401(k) to an IRA. I'm leaning towards Vanguard, but has anyone on here had any positive/negative experience with them or any other companies?

Any suggestion/inputs are appreciated.

I would highly recommend Vanguard.

It is hard to go wrong with Vanguard.

401k Rollover Rules | 401kRolloverRules.com

Check out the bullet points on that website if you are not familiar with 401K rollover rules. It is easy to make a VERY expensive mistake if you don't do a "trustee to trustee" rollover. If you go with Vanguard, they do pretty painless trustee to trustee transactions. You just fill out some papers at Vanguard telling them where you want the money to go and to give them permission to initiate the rollover. You also will likely have to fill out paperwork with the 401K custodian before you have Vanguard initiate anything.

Have you had accounts with Vanguard? Looking over their info and speaking to them, it all seems pretty straightforward. I've always stuck to basics when it comes to finance (save up to buy, don't take on debt, sack away money, etc.) but we're starting to move into some investment strategy.

Yup, I have had accounts (mutual funds, no brokerage account) with Vanguard since the very beginning. I only do index funds, so they are the main game in town. If you want to build a diversified index portfolio, it's a pretty good place to be. My biggest financial pet peeve concerning Vanguard is that they will not provide the appropriate documentation to sell mutual fund shares via the specific share identification method. They only will do average cost. If you only have retirement-type accounts there (i.e. IRAs, etc) then that will not matter to you. Also, for some reason they will not really allow you to use special characters to make strong passwords. Other than those nit picks, they're great.

Thanks!
 

Just found this from a long time ago...thanks for recommending a Vanguard! Things have turned out quite alright!

whatever you do, conduct a CUSTODIAN-TO-CUSTODIAN transfer. Do not "cash out" your balance and handle the transfer yourself.

Consider self directed IRA and you can buy income producing real estate and get your retirement funds out of the market. It has worked well for me. Good luck!