New portability provisions in tax law force TIAA/CREF roll-over?

[Guest Jeff Salisbury]

Greetings,

I am a former employee at a university where I participated in the 401(a) plan (until recently, I thought it was a 403(B) plan). TIAA/CREF was/is the custodian. I'm no longer employed. When I left the university, I tried to roll my retirement account into an IRA. However, I was told that my school's plan does not allow a rollover until I'm 55 (I'm currently 38). I find this very paternalistic and annoying.

Anyways, I was looking through a summary of the new tax bill and I read a summary that indicated that there are new requirements of retirmement plan portability for employers. However, I can't seem to make clear sense of what I'm reading.

Does someone know if these provisions will force my old employer to allow me to do a rollover?

Regards,

Jeff

[rcline46]

No. The plan document controls distribution / rollover. The new provisions PERMIT rollovers between various types of plans, but only if document allows distributions.