If you leave a job or retire, you’re often encouraged to roll over your 401(k) or other workplace retirement account into an individual retirement account. That might not be the right move.
Workplace plans have rules that can protect you from subpar investments and advisors who put their own interests ahead of yours. IRA investments can be more expensive, which can result in less money to spend in retirement. Workplace plans also may offer easier access to your money.
IRAs typically offer many more investment options, a fact heavily emphasized by the financial services companies that want your money. Rollovers are big business — the Investment Company Institute, a trade group, reports that households transferred $463 billion from employer-sponsored plans to IRAs in 2017, the latest year for which statistics are available.
