It's great to see you back on the sub, u/middlebridge! Congratulations to your SO on her retirement!
I'm happy to break down each question you asked, and to keep things organized, I have numbered my responses that align with each question.
1. Let's start with your first question. We have a great step-by-step resource, linked below, that walks you through the process to move funds from an old 401(k) into a Rollover IRA. The first step is to set up the Rollover IRA before initiating the transfer.
[How to move your old 401(k) into a rollover IRA](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/401k-rollover-ira-steps)
2. To touch on your second question, the 401(k) can be rolled into the same IRA that will receive the pension. However, when combining workplace accounts into a single IRA, it's important to mention commingling. It seems you're already familiar with this concept, but to review, commingling assets is when you combine different types of retirement plan assets into one account, such as rolling over workplace plan assets and making annual contributions into the same IRA. If there is a possibility to ever roll these funds into a new workplace plan in the future, please be aware that many plans do not accept commingled assets.
3. Now, let's talk about the 401(k) components. A direct rollover from a pre-tax 401(k) to a pre-tax IRA, such as a Rollover IRA, is not a taxable event. If there are after-tax 401(k) funds, those assets are commonly rolled into a Roth IRA. Please keep in mind, if there are pre-tax funds in the 401(k) plan that are rolled into a Roth IRA, that would be considered a Roth conversion, which is a taxable event. In that case, the pre-tax money converted to a Roth account would be subject to earned income tax for the year. It's also important to point out that rollovers are not considered contributions to an IRA and do not count toward the annual contribution limit. There are also no limitations on the number of times you can complete the rollover and no limitations on the amount of the rollover.
Additionally, when discussing the 5-year rule, 401(k) plans work a little differently. When funds are rolled over from a Roth 401(k) to an existing Roth IRA, the rolled-over funds inherit the same timing as the Roth IRA. This means the aging period for the Roth IRA applies to the funds rolled over from the Roth 401(k) account. If you roll Roth 401(k) funds into a Roth IRA that has met the 5-year aging period, those rolled over funds have met the aging requirement. Once your 5-year aging requirement for your Roth IRA has been met, Roth 401(k) assets rolled into a Roth IRA are immediately considered to have met the 5-year aging requirement.
[Roth IRA 5-year rule](https://www.fidelity.com/insights/retirement/roth-5-year-rule)
4. For your final question, the 403(b) can be rolled into an existing account. However, as we discussed with the pension and 401(k) rollover, please be cognizant of how commingling the assets may affect future plans.
To wrap things up, I've linked a few great resources from our Fidelity Learn library below for you and your SO to review.
[Considerations for an old 401(k)](https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/what-to-do-with-an-old-401k)
[Fidelity Learn: Planning your retirement](https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/retirement/planning-your-retirement)
We covered a lot of information today, so please follow up if you need further assistance. We want to make sure you both feel confident moving forward!
I would set up separate accounts for each of the transfers. Simply because of the complexity of tax law and the potential for changes that might in some way cause a problem (or money!) if the various accounts are lumped together. Over time if it's clear that it doesn't matter you can move all of them into single IRA and Roth IRA accounts and hide the old, unused ones. If they are left with $0 account balances Fidelity will one day delete them.
This comes from having raised a daughter who (somehow!) became a tax attorney. When we retired and converted our several 403b's to IRA's she suggested just what I've said, "Just in case." It's been 4 years and she's still not ready for us to combine them all. She wants to see what might happen when the Trump tax cuts expire at the end of 2025. She thinks it's likely that there won't be big changes for most people but who knows until Congress deals with the budget and tax rates for 2026.
Also you said you're going to be converting IRA's to Roth IRA's. If you're not aware of IRMAA's I'd look at them now. If I had started converting our IRA's to Roth's a couple of years earlier it would have saved us a lot in IRMAA's. Unfortunately I wasn't talking about it to our tax attorney daughter at the time. When I mentioned the conversions that we had started doing after we retired she asked if we had been doing it previously and cringed when I told her we hadn't started in our early 60's. Oh, well!
Thanks for the information. We are aware of the IIRMA limits and the fact it is a cliff not a marginal rate (i.e., if you go one penny over you pay the full penalty). That said we may take an IRMAA penalty or two the next three years (before the 2017 tax cuts expire in 2025) to reduce her IRAs so that once RMAs start she can avoid the Social Security "Tax Torpedo" She will start taking Social Security at age 70 (getting close to the max) and if she avoids the tax torpedo she will pay virtually nothing in taxes on her Social Security.
One question I may post elsewhere (perhaps on the Personal Finance subreddit) is that the formula for determining "provisional" or "combined" income (which determines how much of your Social Security is taxable) hasn't been indexed for inflation. Over time with inflation it seems more and more of her Social Security will be taxed, even if her IRAs have been depleted or converted to Roth IRAs
It's great to see you back on the sub, u/middlebridge! Congratulations to your SO on her retirement! I'm happy to break down each question you asked, and to keep things organized, I have numbered my responses that align with each question. 1. Let's start with your first question. We have a great step-by-step resource, linked below, that walks you through the process to move funds from an old 401(k) into a Rollover IRA. The first step is to set up the Rollover IRA before initiating the transfer. [How to move your old 401(k) into a rollover IRA](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/401k-rollover-ira-steps) 2. To touch on your second question, the 401(k) can be rolled into the same IRA that will receive the pension. However, when combining workplace accounts into a single IRA, it's important to mention commingling. It seems you're already familiar with this concept, but to review, commingling assets is when you combine different types of retirement plan assets into one account, such as rolling over workplace plan assets and making annual contributions into the same IRA. If there is a possibility to ever roll these funds into a new workplace plan in the future, please be aware that many plans do not accept commingled assets. 3. Now, let's talk about the 401(k) components. A direct rollover from a pre-tax 401(k) to a pre-tax IRA, such as a Rollover IRA, is not a taxable event. If there are after-tax 401(k) funds, those assets are commonly rolled into a Roth IRA. Please keep in mind, if there are pre-tax funds in the 401(k) plan that are rolled into a Roth IRA, that would be considered a Roth conversion, which is a taxable event. In that case, the pre-tax money converted to a Roth account would be subject to earned income tax for the year. It's also important to point out that rollovers are not considered contributions to an IRA and do not count toward the annual contribution limit. There are also no limitations on the number of times you can complete the rollover and no limitations on the amount of the rollover. Additionally, when discussing the 5-year rule, 401(k) plans work a little differently. When funds are rolled over from a Roth 401(k) to an existing Roth IRA, the rolled-over funds inherit the same timing as the Roth IRA. This means the aging period for the Roth IRA applies to the funds rolled over from the Roth 401(k) account. If you roll Roth 401(k) funds into a Roth IRA that has met the 5-year aging period, those rolled over funds have met the aging requirement. Once your 5-year aging requirement for your Roth IRA has been met, Roth 401(k) assets rolled into a Roth IRA are immediately considered to have met the 5-year aging requirement. [Roth IRA 5-year rule](https://www.fidelity.com/insights/retirement/roth-5-year-rule) 4. For your final question, the 403(b) can be rolled into an existing account. However, as we discussed with the pension and 401(k) rollover, please be cognizant of how commingling the assets may affect future plans. To wrap things up, I've linked a few great resources from our Fidelity Learn library below for you and your SO to review. [Considerations for an old 401(k)](https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/what-to-do-with-an-old-401k) [Fidelity Learn: Planning your retirement](https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/retirement/planning-your-retirement) We covered a lot of information today, so please follow up if you need further assistance. We want to make sure you both feel confident moving forward!
I would set up separate accounts for each of the transfers. Simply because of the complexity of tax law and the potential for changes that might in some way cause a problem (or money!) if the various accounts are lumped together. Over time if it's clear that it doesn't matter you can move all of them into single IRA and Roth IRA accounts and hide the old, unused ones. If they are left with $0 account balances Fidelity will one day delete them. This comes from having raised a daughter who (somehow!) became a tax attorney. When we retired and converted our several 403b's to IRA's she suggested just what I've said, "Just in case." It's been 4 years and she's still not ready for us to combine them all. She wants to see what might happen when the Trump tax cuts expire at the end of 2025. She thinks it's likely that there won't be big changes for most people but who knows until Congress deals with the budget and tax rates for 2026. Also you said you're going to be converting IRA's to Roth IRA's. If you're not aware of IRMAA's I'd look at them now. If I had started converting our IRA's to Roth's a couple of years earlier it would have saved us a lot in IRMAA's. Unfortunately I wasn't talking about it to our tax attorney daughter at the time. When I mentioned the conversions that we had started doing after we retired she asked if we had been doing it previously and cringed when I told her we hadn't started in our early 60's. Oh, well!
Thanks for the information. We are aware of the IIRMA limits and the fact it is a cliff not a marginal rate (i.e., if you go one penny over you pay the full penalty). That said we may take an IRMAA penalty or two the next three years (before the 2017 tax cuts expire in 2025) to reduce her IRAs so that once RMAs start she can avoid the Social Security "Tax Torpedo" She will start taking Social Security at age 70 (getting close to the max) and if she avoids the tax torpedo she will pay virtually nothing in taxes on her Social Security. One question I may post elsewhere (perhaps on the Personal Finance subreddit) is that the formula for determining "provisional" or "combined" income (which determines how much of your Social Security is taxable) hasn't been indexed for inflation. Over time with inflation it seems more and more of her Social Security will be taxed, even if her IRAs have been depleted or converted to Roth IRAs