Have a a 401k plan at work? if you leave your job for any reason, you have options to leave it where it is, or moving your money into a 401k rollover account. For many reasons, the 401k roll over could be your best bet.

With so many people saving more today, and also an increased possibility of being laid off and changing jobs, using the 401k rollover option is a way to maintain some control over your retirement security. Unfortunately, the roll over is not very well explained or understood by most investors.

The 401k roll over account is just a new account into which you move the 401k funds you accumulated with your previous employer. Then you can take over management of the funds instead of your previous employer’s management company. All you need to do is open a new account with a broker you choose. They give you all the proper paperwork to transfer everything from your previous job. If you don’t take any withdrawals from your account, there are no penalties or taxes.

When you leave your employer, here are your four main options for your 401k account:

1) Cash your savings. Beware: if you cash out your account prior to your statutory allowance, you will pay taxes and penalties! 2) Stay with the retirement plan from your previous employer. this is hands off, but risky because you can’t directly manage your account. 3) Transfer the balance of your prior retirement account into the retirement plan offered by your new employer. 4) Open a 401k Rollover IRA account with another broker or mutual fund of your choice, and transfer all retirement funds into that account.

Choosing #1 is not a good idea unless you are in serous, dire financial difficulty. Choices #2 and #3 are conservative, hands off type decisions. Only #4 will give you a new chance to really build up your account balances for retirement.

When you keep your funds within an employer’s plan, your investment options are very limited, to a few types of large funds, plus a couple international funds maybe, and one or two money market options. You don’t have a chance to take advantage of market conditions to move your retirement savings into vehicles with the potential for higher returns.

In a 401k Rollover IRA with a new broker, however, you can now manage your own account actively. You get access to thousands of mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, bonds and anything you could invest in with a regular individual brokerage account.

Self directed accounts give you a greater opportunity to profit. For example, on an account with an employer plan returning an average of 8%, if you can increase your returns in a self directed account to 12%, you could retire with nearly double the account balance as if you had remained within the employer’s plan.

You can see that the advantages of switching your account to a 401k rollover, instead of leaving it with your employer’s fund managers, can make a big difference in your future retirement stability.

When you are switching jobs or retiring, the Rollover IRA opens a window of opportunity for you, widening the range of investment choices for your retirement assets hitherto not available in the employer-sponsored plan. The self-directed Rollover IRA empowers you to construct and manage a mutual fund portfolio to boost the growth rate of your retirement savings.