I am trying to read and learn, but I am truly clueless. Like way under
@speedyfishy. lol When I stopped working we rolled my 401k into an IRA (and I am saying that because I think that is what we did, lol, like I hear people saying those words so I guess that's what I did). We have it at Metlife because we were talking to a guy from there at that time and we haven't looked at it since. I have zero idea what it is in. Should I move it somewhere else, like a different company? It is a small portion compared to my DHs 401K, so we really just kind of forgot about it. And if I should move it, how do I move it? Talk to me like a 3 year old. DH generally knows about this stuff, but like I said, we just have kind of ignored this money. We have 3 small accounts at Met Life, totaling about $100k at this time. One is the 401K rollover, and then we each have a separate IRA? I am not sure what they are, but I have 2 separate accounts and DH has 1. Can it even be moved or is that considered a withdrawal? I am clueless.
Okay--apologies in advance if I talk slow (ha ha!), but I want you to get this.
First off, you're doing fine. Some of us love to get into the nitty-gritty details of investing. It's PERFECTLY OKAY if you don't. I'm an electrical engineer--I do math for sport--so this stuff is like catnip for me. The rest of my family--not so much, although there's hope for DS13 (he tracks several stocks he likes on his phone--it warms my heart!).
Now, when you leave a company, there are typically 3 things that you can do with a 401k: leave it there, cash it out, or roll it over into an IRA. It looks like you rolled it over. Now, you can't roll it into an existing IRA, you have to set up a new one, which it looks like you did (hence the three different accounts with Met Life).
These accounts are probably fine where they are, but I have a couple of concerns. The first is, you don't seem to know how much is in them. You should be getting statements, at least annually. You might be getting them via email. We get paper ones, for two reasons: (1) our assets/accounts are fairly complex, and (2) DH would rather hold the piece of paper in his hand. He has a ton of accounts all over, and it just helps him to keep track of them. This is very much personal preference.
My second concern is that you don't seem to know what the fee structure is, where you currently have these accounts. You need to find this out. For all I know they could have low fees, but I tend to doubt it. Among investors who are into this kind of thing, the low-fee companies are well known--Vanguard is excellent. It was founded by John Bogle. You hear Bogleheads mentioned on here, and there's a whole website with its own forums and articles which might help educate you. I will warn you that these are people who also love this kind of thing, so you might feel a little weird over there, but you could read and gain knowledge, if you're interested.
At any rate, you might be better off switching from Met Life to Vanguard or another less-fee company. If you do a switch, you need to get established at the new company. They'll set up the three accounts, then you can file paperwork to transfer your money over to them. A check should never touch your hands. If one does, you have 60 days to get it into a new, tax-deferred account, but it shouldn't happen.
We've been going through this--my MIL died in 2017, and DH has had to handle (and split with his brother) 7 inherited IRAs, a couple CMAs (cash-management accounts) a bunch of individual stocks, insurance proceeds, 529s, regular checking, a revokable trust, and several trusts for our children. Whew! The only checks that landed in our hands were from life insurance payouts--everything was handled by our financial advisor and rolled from the estate accounts into the various counterparts under DH's control. I don't want to go into too much detail because your head is probably already spinning. I will say that, barely 20 months later, the final transfer finally took place (the 529 for our kids was the holdout).
Also, I use a financial planner. yes, they cost money, and not everyone is a fan. We're happy (we use Northwest Mutual, FYI). If you decide to look for one, stay away from Edward Jones. If you're curious or bored, go to the Bogleheads forum and type in "Edward Jones". They aren't trained in getting a good deal, more in churning your accounts and racking up fees.
