Should You Rollover Your Pension Or 401(k) To An IRA?

Should You Rollover Your Pension Or 401(k) To An IRA?

I’m frequently asked by people facing layoffs or early retirement whether or not it’s better to keep your pension and 401(k) or roll them over to a traditional IRA (assuming the pension allows lump-sum rollovers).  Here is a table comparing these choices. Given all these differences, what’s the right choice?  It depends. If you are…
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Poverty In Retirement Is Increasing

According to a recent Employee Benefit Research Institute study, the proportion of retirees living below the poverty line has been growing steadily since 2005.  Poverty rates for people ages 65 to 74 climbed from 7.9 percent in 2005 to 9.4 percent in 2009.  The increase was even steeper for older retirees, jumping from 7.6% to…
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Would You Save More If You Knew How Much It Would Be Worth?

Two recent studies, one at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the other at The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, found that when people are better informed about what their savings will be worth in the future, they save more.  Although both studies focused on younger savers, the results suggest that…
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What’s a Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

When we talk to our clients and others in the community about their retirement goals and plans, they often ask, “How much money will I need to accumulate before I retire in order to be able to live the lifestyle I’d like?” While this is an important question, more specifically what they’d really like to…
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What Can You Do If Your 401(k) Is Not Very Good?

401(k)s can be a great way to save for retirement. But how do you know how good your company’s plan is? How would you go about measuring it? And, once you find out, what can you do about it? On the measurement side, there is now a website, BrightScope.com, that rates 401(k) plans based on…
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