How do I get my old 401(k) sent directly to an IRA?

By Kaz · Published 28 September 2026 · How this site checks figures

Summary

You ask the old plan's administrator to pay the money to your IRA instead of to you. The IRS says you can request exactly that, and when the plan pays another plan or an IRA directly, no tax is withheld. The plan can't do it without somewhere to send the money, so the work starts with the receiving IRA, not with the old employer. If the plan pays the money to you instead, it must withhold 20% and you have 60 days from receipt to redeposit it, which the page on the 60-day deadline and 20% withholding works through.

The order that works

Open the IRA that will receive the money, or pick an existing one.
Write down the receiving firm's payee wording, your new account number, and its mailing or wire details.
Ask the old plan for a direct rollover and give it those details.
When the money lands, choose investments for it.

Picking the receiving account

Pretax 401(k) money goes into a traditional IRA. Some firms market that account as a "rollover IRA," but it holds the same pretax money. A Roth 401(k) balance goes to a Roth IRA. You can send pretax money to a Roth IRA as well, but then the untaxed amount is added to your income for the year of the rollover. If your account mixes pretax and after-tax dollars, splitting them has its own rules, covered in the article on pretax and after-tax money.

What the old plan needs from you

The IRS guidance here is one line: "Contact your plan administrator for instructions." There's no standard federal form. The receiving firms are more specific. Schwab and Fidelity both want your IRA account number printed on any check the old plan cuts, and Schwab says it keeps the deposit from being held up.

Company stock is the exception to a routine request. Fidelity asks people with employer shares in the old 401(k) to call before starting, and the tax treatment of those shares is explained in the article on net unrealized appreciation.

Check or wire

A direct rollover can still arrive as paper. The IRS notes that the administrator "may issue your distribution in the form of a check made payable to your new account," and that such a check isn't subject to withholding even when it's mailed to your home. What matters is the name on the payee line. You forward it to the address the receiving firm gives, or deposit it through the firm's app where that's allowed; Fidelity accepts mobile check deposit.

A wire may need a code from the receiving firm. Fidelity's instructions say: "When sending a direct rollover from an employer plan to a retirement account, include code DRC."

When the money lands

It usually isn't invested yet. Vanguard places incoming rollover money in the IRA's settlement fund, "where you must then select your investments," and Fidelity points out that an IRA, unlike a 401(k), doesn't invest new money for you. The tax paperwork comes later: a Form 1099-R from the old plan, which should carry distribution code G for a direct rollover, and a Form 5498 from the new custodian.

Sources

Written by Kaz, an independent publisher.
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