Looking at potentially moving 401k over to Roth IRA, I am a young professional and haven't accumulated much of a 401k yet, I feel like I would be better off in a Roth IRA. Any suggestions for who would be good to discuss my options in the Ankeny area?
Thanks for any suggestions.
In general a Roth is a good idea. But as a young person, presumably without a ton of disposable income, do you want to take the tax hit on a conversion?
If you don't have much of a balance, I would advise going to a low-cost firm like Vanguard and open up a traditional/rollover IRA, then moving your old 401(k) funds into this. Then open up a Roth IRA at the same firm, and start making contributions to this going forward.
Without knowing the specifics of your situation, here is some general good advice on where to invest.
1. If you have the option, always invest in your employer's 401(k) up to the point at which you max out your company match. This way you get all the free money you're entitled to.
2. Next, contribute to a Roth IRA until you've maxed out its limit for the year ($5,500 in 2017). (Perhaps you have a Roth 401(k) option with your employer, which would accomplish the same thing as far as tax diversification is concerned. But I recommend funding the the separate Roth IRA first, so you have control over that money. If they're in your employer's plan they are stuck there until you leave the company.)
3. If you've done #1 and #2 and still have money to invest, decide what to do next. You can invest more in the employer's 401(k) plan up to the IRS maximum ($18,000 in 2017). This might be a good time to use the Roth 401(k) with your employer, if you have that option. Or if your employer plan sucks (high fees or poor investment options) you could crunch the numbers and consider investing in a separate brokerage account.
Final advice: be careful from whom you seek advice. Insurance agents, banks, investment firms all have "advisers" trying to earn your business. Most are honest people but most/all of them earn commissions, meaning there may be bias in their recommendations toward products/funds that earn them more money. Watch that stuff closely. Go only for no-load funds with really cheap expense ratios. (These days there's rarely a reason you should have to pay more than, say, 0.4%/year and Vanguard has tons of choices at 0.2% or lower.)