Capitalize moves your old 401(k)s into any IRA — for free.

It’s the technical term for the money you transfer from a 401(k) to another retirement account, like an IRA. It’s what most people choose to do with the money they’ve saved in their 401(k) account when leaving a job. A rollover is different to a withdrawal, which is when you pull your money out of a 401(k) and pay taxes on it. A rollover is tax-free because your money stays in a retirement account.

Both a 401(k) and IRA (Individual Retirement Account) are retirement accounts that help you save money in a tax-efficient way. But there are three key differences:

1. A 401(k) is provided by an employer whereas an IRA is something that you open on your own at any time (that’s why it’s an individual retirement account).
2. A 401(k) is generally used to make new contributions while an IRA is more often used to transfer 401(k) savings into when you leave a job.
3. You lose the ability to contribute to an old 401(k) when you leave your job and it can sometimes be transferred without your consent by your old employer. That can never happen with an IRA since it’s fully controlled by you and in your name.

We can help with 403(b) accounts as well! Our process is the same since they’re very similar to 401(k) accounts.

Yes, we do. If you have a Roth 401(k) we’ll help roll it over it into a Roth IRA so that you keep the same tax benefits.

The difference between Traditional and Roth accounts comes down to when you pay taxes on your money. In a Traditional account, your ongoing contributions (savings) are made before tax. For example, money going into a traditional 401(k) gets taken out of your paycheck before you pay taxes on it. That money grows over time as the investments in your 401(k) increase in value. You’ll eventually pay taxes on it when you start withdrawing it at retirement.

The opposite is true with a Roth account. Your initial contributions are made after-tax. But since you’ve paid tax up-front you don’t have to pay any tax when you start withdrawing assets at retirement.

Think of a Traditional as a tax-me-later account whereas a Roth is a tax-me-now account.

Absolutely, and it’s generally a good thing to do. One of the problems with keeping multiple 401(k)s is that you’ll have different fees and investment options in each. It’s also harder to keep track of. Consolidating into a single IRA makes it much easier to monitor your savings and make sure your fees and investments are appropriate.

In order to provide a free service to our users we have partnership agreements with IRA providers who pay us a referral fee if you choose to open an account through us. But our job is to help you simplify your retirement accounts and we only win if you do. We also help people who already have an IRA account even though we might receive no compensation in these situations — because it’s just the right thing to do.