Verified answer

If you left 18 months ago and they're still sending you information about the 401k plan then I would say either they're not very efficient at updating their mailing lists or you have some money in the 401k.

There's probably a phone number, e-mail address, or website shown on whatever they sent you. If I were you, I'd contact them to find out if you have an account. If you do, you could leave it there or you might be able to transfer it to your current employer or roll it over into an IRA.

EDIT: I do not agree with one of the answers added after mine that says it's always best to roll it over into an IRA. If the 401k plan is good with low expenses, that might be the best place to leave it. My wife still has a 401k from an employer she left 18 years ago because it's a good plan with good investment choices and low expenses (subsidized by the employer I think).

You are supposed to roll over your 401k into a new 401k with your new employer or with an IRA. The advantages of an IRA is that you often have better investment choices with a Brokerage IRA then with an employer directed 401k so you can often invest in better funds, stocks or bonds. Some employers will allow you to be grandfathered into their program if you have a certain amount of seniority, others will charge your account an exorbitant fee if you've exceeded a certain time period such as thirty days after employment. Fidelity used to have a commercial where a yellow line kept directing a person back to his old place of employment in order to recover his 401k funds. It would be very rare for a 401k to be better than an IRA as a 401k is most often designed either to benefit the employer or benefit the third party administering the funds, there are very few companies socialist enough to pay extra for their 401k to be better than a brokerage IRA. Keep in mind that a 401k is an investment account not a savings account so it doesn't actually earn interest though it does earn a return and indeed if you had not selected a default fund, you'll be earning virtually nothing at all.

Yes, your former employer had contributed to your 401k plan. Depends on the company, some companies may not allow you to take it out. However, if your current company has a 401k plan also, you can transfer your previous plan in combination with the current plan.

If you do have an existing 401k with the old employer, it's best to rollover any money in the plan to a IRA. It's easy to do and gives you complete control of the money. Remember it is your money. There's more info here: http://novelinvestor.com/retirement-planning/optio...

In all situations, distributions from a 401k are concern to earnings tax. the subject is how can she decrease or get rid of the ten% early withdrawal penalty. If she replaced into age fifty 5 or older while she left her activity then she will have the skill to no longer be assessed a penalty. If she replaced into no longer yet fifty 5, then she will parent the quantity of deductible scientific costs that she paid in 2009. it fairly is regularly your scientific costs as nicely, and likewise any dependents. To the quantity that the scientific costs exceed 7.5% of your AGI (assuming you record a joint return), the ten% penalty heavily isn't assessed. in the experience that your better half is completely and entirely disabled, she will have the skill to no longer be assessed a penalty. yet differently to flee the penalty may well be to establish a area seventy two(t) sequence of money. those are money which could bypass on for a minimum of 5 years. The trustee is common with approximately this manner of ingredient, or bypass to a tax place. If the sequence of money are discontinued, effects may well be assessed in arrears.