Question Advisable to roll pension funds into 401K?

[Zombie13]

Hi folks.
When I turn 55, I will be eligible to access pension funds from a former company without penalties. My question: is it advisable to roll pension funds into a 401K? Waiting til I am 70 or so, would yield more direct from the pension, but I am wondering if taking it all out when I am 55, and putting it into a 401K, could surpass the value if I leave it til I am 70. I understand the market has volatility, so it is taking a chance I suppose. What do you think? Thanks!

[justbroke]

One word... Enron. I'd move my money out from employer-held funds as soon as I could. You can always put your rollover money into a more stable money-market account. (Especially if you're close to retirement, you should be in low risk funds.)

At least, those are my thoughts.

[Zombie13]

Thanks justbroke. Yeah, good ol' Enron. Spell it like NRON and we have a 4 letter word LOL! I am a ways from retirement, but definitely want to get the money away from the pension fund and into something(s) else. We will need to speak with a financial advisor as well.

[shipo]

I tend to agree with @justbroke's assessment.

From a different perspective, I'm faced with a similar decision now with Social Security; my wife and I are 66, however, if we wait until we're 70 (about 3 years for me and 3.5 years for her), my monthly benefit will go up by over $1,100 and hers will go up by over $900. At this point we certainly don't need the money, however, we're thinking we might split the difference, have her file for benefits in a couple of months when she hits full retirement age, and have me wait until 70.

[Zombie13]

I tend to agree with @justbroke's assessment.

From a different perspective, I'm faced with a similar decision now with Social Security; my wife and I are 66, however, if we wait until we're 70 (about 3 years for me and 3.5 years for her), my monthly benefit will go up by over $1,100 and hers will go up by over $900. At this point we certainly don't need the money, however, we're thinking we might split the difference, have her file for benefits in a couple of months when she hits full retirement age, and have me wait until 70.

thanks shipo, yes this is food for thought as well. Come to think of it, I believe there may be an annual cap on what can be paid into a 401k, so I probably could not take a pension lump sum and just put it into the 401k. Looks like we need to start learning and understanding investment and money products.

[justbroke]

If it's a rollover, the amount won't matter. Definitely seek out a financial adviser and hopefully one from a reputable firm.

[Zombie13]

Will do, thanks. Slightly funny story: we were looking into one firm since we got a mailer from them. But in order to work with them, we need something like, at least $500,000.00 to invest. So, next! LOL! If we had 500K, we would never have been bankrupt, see.... that's not how it works... at all...

[justbroke]

Zombie13 yeah it seems most "private banking" at the major banks wants at least $500K in invest-able funds. In the good ole days, they would include a jumbo mortgage (held by them of course) in that calculation.

[shipo]

I've heard Chase grants Private Client status with only $150,000.

[Zombie13]

Zombie13 yeah it seems most "private banking" at the major banks wants at least $500K in invest-able funds. In the good ole days, they would include a jumbo mortgage (held by them of course) in that calculation.

So, are you saying: if a person had a jumbo mortgage, that mortgage would be considered equity contributable toward an investment portfolio? That sounds kind of iffy.

[justbroke]

So, are you saying: if a person had a jumbo mortgage, that mortgage would be considered equity contributable toward an investment portfolio? That sounds kind of iffy.

Neither an investment portfolio nor invest-able. Many years ago, Bank of America would allow you to be a private banking customer if you had $250K in investments or had a $250K+ mortgage through the bank. They stopped that at some point. It may have been, at the time, a way to drive more mortgage business to BOA.

[Zombie13]

Zombie13 yeah it seems most "private banking" at the major banks wants at least $500K in invest-able funds. In the good ole days, they would include a jumbo mortgage (held by them of course) in that calculation.

Thanks again JustBroke. The final sentence in this post is what confused me.