tomres

The IRS Rule of 55 allows an employee who is laid off, fired, or who quits a job between the ages of 55 and 59 1/2 to pull money out of his 401(k) or 403(b) plan without penalty. This applies to workers who leave their jobs anytime during or after the year of their 55th birthdays. Of course, there is a slight catch you need to be aware of. The Rule of 55 only applies to assets in your current 401(k) or 403(b)—the one you invested in while you were at the job you are considering leaving at age 55 or older. If you have money in a former 401(k) or 403(b), it's not eligible for the early withdrawal penalty exemption. You would have to wait until age 59 1/2 to begin withdrawing funds from those accounts if you wanted to do so without paying the 10-percent penalty. One strategy to give yourself access to retirement plan assets with a former employer prior to age 59 1/2 is to roll those assets into your current 401k prior to retiring from your current job.

and thanks Suzanne for the info....

Hi To clarify. 1 The company I worked for I was in a management role ( was there for about 15 years) and ran one of their offices. I was not terminated or even considered a terminated participant. I liked the people who ran my 401k so that is why I stayed with them. I did not roll it over at that time because i just turned 55 and i wanted to keep the option(The over 55 rule) if i wanted to draw on it without penalty. I planned on rolling it over but 6 months went really quick. . I been talking with fidelity (3 different people) today and found out that today they can see the money in the account but for some reason i cant see it. I was told I might have to wait till January to do anything with it. The company never denied that they did not send me the notice email. They just sent me the notice from October 26th and said here you go. It looks like in the next few days i will be finding out a lot more.

Thanks .The first thing I did was check my spam folder. I contacted 4 past employees and 3 did not receive any notice( checked spam etc.). I have the original email they sent out and its something we would not have missed. I have been in contact with fidelity and was told i cant do anything until after the first of the year. Cant move anything at all. As soon as it settles I will most likely put it in a IRA. It was put into a 2030 fund and i cant touch it. I talked with a current employee today and he said he could see his money and it was transferred already.and the fidelity rep said that happens sometimes. Funny how no one cares when its not their money.. All I can do is hope the market goes up I guess..

Larry ,thanks so much for taking the time to respond . I also noticed that you're only 10 minutes away! I guess i was looking to see if anyone has had this issue in the past. . Thanks again

Hello I have just found out in the past few days that my 401k plan was transferred to another company and is now in the blackout period. I had left the company 6 months ago but I am still a participant. I had planned to move it to an IRA. I also have more than a half million in the plan . The only way I found out is that another former employee was trying to get into his account and was locked out. It looks like that the company’s 401k administrator did not notify and give notice to any past employees in the plan. I called my former employer’s HR person and was told they have all my contact info and I should have received an email in October. I had told her I did not receive anything and told her at least one other had not received any email or any other correspondence concerning the transferring our 401k plan to another company. While on the phone the owner of the company overheard our conversation and told the HR person that she will have to get back to me. Two minutes later I get an email from the company’s 401k administrator showing an October 26th email giving the info of the 30 days notice and the black out period. FYI - all the employees were removed from the email chain and confirming that I did not receive it at that time. It is now in the blackout period. I called the new 401k company (Fidelity) and was told they could see I have zero balance but were having issues registering me to have a new account set up. They also said they could not give me any info since they are in the middle of the blackout period that started in late November. I made calls to two other past employees and were told they did not get notice either. I have calls into the old 401k company to see if I can find out what was my final balance when they transferred it over to fidelity. If I had known I certainly would not have allowed this to happen without changing things up. I know they still have not given any info to the past employees that also did not receive any notices also . I think they are concerned it will open up a can of worms. What recourse do I have if I lose money during this transition? What are my rights?