There are many different types of plans and ways for you to move your retirement assets from one employer to another — or to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). A face-to-face meeting with an experienced financial advisor can help you explore your options and develop a long-term financial plan to help you reach your retirement goals.

Roll over distribution-eligible amounts

Plan participants may roll over their plan accounts to a new employer's plan, most other plan types (excluding nonqualified deferred compensation plans of not-for-profit employers), or to an IRA.  Amounts from governmental 457(b) plans may be rolled over to IRAs or other tax-qualified plans such as 401(k) plans and 403(b) plans once they have met a distribution event if the receiving plan accepts such rollovers. After-tax amounts will also be eligible to be rolled to an IRA or directly to other like plans, provided the receiving plan agrees to maintain separate records of those amounts. After-tax Roth accounts are an exception to the general rule, in that those amounts can only be moved to other Roth accounts or Roth IRAs. 

Rollovers of pretax amounts can also be made from IRAs to other plans.

Purchase of service credits for state pension plan. State and local government employees may purchase service credits in their state defined-benefit plan by transferring amounts from their 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) plans, if the receiving plan accepts such transfers.

Reporting requirements

Reporting of distributions from governmental 457(b) plans, as is already the case with other tax-qualified plans, must be made on Form 1099-R, rather than form W-2, and distributions will be subject to the same rollover and distribution notice requirements applicable to other tax-qualified plans. However, amounts held in governmental 457(b) plans will continue to be exempt from the 10% federal penalty under Code Section 72(t), for withdrawals prior to age 59 ½. Rollovers from governmental 457(b) plans to a different type of plan or to an IRA, though, will become subject to this penalty provision. In addition, any rollovers from those plans into a 457(b) plan will have to be tracked separately so that the 10% penalty can be applied to pre-59 ½ distributions of those amounts.