Rollover eligibility checker

What your eligibility result means

The checker returns one of five findings. Each turns on the plan document and the IRS rules rather than on anything a dealer or a custodian decides, which is why the answer does not change depending on who you call.

Eligible, direct rollover The money can move now: A plan you have already left, or an IRA, moves by direct trustee-to-trustee transfer with no tax and no withholding. Ask for the transfer in that form specifically, because a check made out to you triggers the 20% mandatory withholding and starts a 60-day clock you have to fund the shortfall out of pocket to beat.
Eligible, Roth route No tax event on the way across: A Roth IRA moves into a Roth gold IRA with the tax treatment intact, since both sides are already after-tax money. The five-year clock on the original Roth carries over, which matters for withdrawals rather than for the transfer itself.
Likely eligible, in-service Depends on your plan, and most allow it past 59 and a half: Many plans permit an in-service distribution once you reach 59 and a half even though you still work there. The plan document decides, so the useful call is to your plan administrator asking whether in-service distributions are allowed and what the form is called.
Not eligible yet Locked for now, by rule rather than by choice: Current-employer plans below 59 and a half usually lock funds until you separate, and a SIMPLE IRA is locked for two years from the first contribution. Both are dated conditions rather than permanent ones, so the answer changes on a day you can work out in advance.
Depends on the plan document Defined-benefit pensions, mostly: Most defined-benefit pensions cannot be rolled over at all while the benefit is accruing, and the ones that can usually only move a lump-sum option at a specific point. The plan's summary description is the document that settles it.

What is a gold IRA rollover?

A rollover moves money from one retirement account into another without it counting as a withdrawal. In a gold IRA rollover the destination is a self-directed IRA that can hold physical bullion, and the source is usually a 401(k), a 403(b), a TSP or an existing IRA. Done correctly there is no tax, no penalty and no reportable income, because the money never leaves the retirement system.

There are two routes and they are not equivalent. A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer moves the money between custodians without it ever reaching you, which means no withholding, no deadline and no annual limit. An indirect rollover pays you first and gives you sixty days to redeposit it, and an employer plan taking that route must withhold 20% for federal tax, which you then have to replace out of your own pocket to keep the rollover whole.

Whether your account can move at all is a separate question from which route applies. Once you have separated from an employer, federal law requires the plan to allow a rollover of an eligible distribution. While you still work there, the plan document decides, which is why two people the same age at two different companies can get different answers and both administrators are correct.

Why move a 401(k) into a gold IRA

A workplace plan gives you the menu the plan sponsor chose, which is usually a set of stock and bond funds and nothing that behaves differently from either. That is a reasonable menu and it has one structural gap, since every option on it is a claim on somebody's future payments and they can fall together, as stocks and bonds did through 2022.

Rolling into a self-directed IRA widens the menu rather than replacing it. Section 408(m)(3) allows an IRA to hold bullion meeting the fineness rules, which is the only way to hold physical metal inside a retirement wrapper and keep the tax treatment intact. Most people move a portion rather than the whole balance, since the point is to add a holding the plan menu does not carry.

The mechanics decide how much of the money survives the trip. A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer moves the full amount with no tax and no withholding, while a check made out to you arrives with 20% already withheld and starts a 60-day clock you have to close out of your own pocket. The IRS also limits you to one indirect IRA-to-IRA rollover in any twelve-month period across all your IRAs, and the direct route has no such limit.

How to use the rollover eligibility checker

Two answers settle most cases, and the rest of the questions only change the result at the edges.

Say where the money is now

A 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) or TSP is an employer plan and the employer's own document controls when it can move. A traditional, Roth, SEP or SIMPLE IRA is yours already, and no employer has a say in it.
Say whether you still work there

This is the question that decides most cases. Once you have separated from the employer, federal law requires the plan to allow a rollover of an eligible distribution. While you are still there, the plan document decides, and plan documents vary.
Set your age

59½ is the line that opens in-service distributions at most plans that allow them at all, and it is also the line below which an indirect rollover that misses the sixty-day window picks up a 10% penalty on top of the tax.
Read the route, then read the warnings

The checker returns direct or indirect and lays out the steps for whichever applies. The warnings under it are the parts that cost real money if missed, including the 20% mandatory withholding a plan applies to any distribution paid to you rather than to the receiving custodian.
Confirm it against your own plan document

The Summary Plan Description is the only authority on your specific plan and HR is required to give you one. This checker tells you what the general rule is and what to look for in that document, which is what makes the phone call to the administrator a short one.

What each answer means, and where to find it

Three of these you already know. The fourth applies only to a SIMPLE IRA, and it is the one people get wrong because the clock does not start where they think it does.

Employment status

Whether you are still with the employer whose plan holds the money, have left, are retired, or are self-employed. Separation from service is the event that unlocks an employer plan, and until it happens the plan document is in charge.

Where to find it You know this one. If you left and were later rehired by the same employer, count yourself as a current employee, since that is how the plan will treat you.

Source account type

Which plan the money is in now. Employer plans and IRAs move under different rules, Roth money has to land in a Roth account to stay tax-free, and a SIMPLE IRA carries a two-year lock the others do not.

Where to find it The plan name on your statement. A TSP statement says TSP, and a 403(b) will usually say tax-sheltered annuity somewhere on it.

Your age

Used for the 59½ in-service threshold and for the early-distribution penalty that applies if an indirect rollover fails. It has no effect on a direct transfer from an account you have already separated from.

Where to find it Your birth date. The threshold is 59½ exactly, so someone six months short of sixty is under it.

Years since your first SIMPLE contribution

Only asked for a SIMPLE IRA. The clock starts on the date of the first employer contribution to your SIMPLE, and a rollover out before two years have passed is treated as a distribution carrying a 25% penalty rather than the usual 10%.

Where to find it Your payroll administrator has the date of the first contribution. It is not the date you joined the company.

How rollover eligibility is decided

Eligibility comes from three places: federal law, the IRS rules for each account type, and your own plan document. The checker handles the first two and tells you when the third is the one that decides.

The checker runs your answers against the general federal rules for each plan type: the separation-from-service requirement for employer plans, the in-service threshold at 59½, the two-year SIMPLE holding period, and the tax-treatment match between source and destination. It returns the route that applies and the steps for it. Where a plan document rather than the IRS controls the answer, it says so and names the sentence to look for rather than guessing which way your plan went.

What this checker cannot tell you

Your specific plan document, which can be more restrictive than the general rule and is the only authority on your case.
Defined-benefit pensions, where a lump-sum option exists or it does not and only the Summary Plan Description says which.
State tax treatment, which varies and which no federal rule settles.
Whether a rollover is a good idea, since this answers only whether one is permitted.
Net unrealised appreciation on employer stock, which can make rolling the whole balance the wrong move and needs a preparer.

Three rollover situations, worked through

These are the three shapes the question usually takes: still employed, recently separated, and locked out by a rule most people have never heard of.

Frank, 61, still working

Has $180,000 in his current employer's 401(k) and wants to move part of it without leaving the job.

Status: Still employed there
Source: 401(k)
Age: 61

Likely eligible for an in-service rollover, subject to the plan document.

Past 59½ most plans permit in-service distributions, but it is a plan choice rather than a right. The single sentence to look for in the Summary Plan Description is whether in-service distributions are permitted, and HR can send it the same day.

Bernice, 57, left last spring

Separated from her employer eight months ago with $95,000 still in the old 403(b).

Status: Left that employer
Source: 403(b)
Age: 57

Eligible, direct rollover, and age does not restrict it.

Separation is what unlocked this, not her age. She has to insist on a direct rollover payable to the new custodian, because a plan that cuts the check to her withholds 20% and she would have to find $19,000 of her own money inside sixty days to keep the rollover whole.

Marcus, 44, two years into a SIMPLE

Self-employed, and his first SIMPLE IRA contribution went in twenty months ago.

Status: Self-employed
Source: SIMPLE IRA
Years since first contribution: 1

Not eligible for another four months, until the two-year clock runs out.

A rollover out of a SIMPLE inside the first two years is treated as a distribution with a 25% penalty, which is two and a half times the usual early-withdrawal charge. Opening the receiving account now and moving the money in four months costs nothing.

The rollover rules worth knowing by heart

Four numbers cover almost every rollover mistake that costs real money.

20% Mandatory withholding, indirect route
A plan paying an eligible rollover distribution to you rather than to a custodian must withhold 20% for federal tax. To complete the rollover in full you have to replace that 20% from your own money within sixty days and claim it back at filing.
60 days The indirect rollover window
From the day you receive the money to the day it must land in the new account. Miss it and the whole distribution is taxable, plus a 10% penalty if you are under 59½.
1 per year Indirect rollover limit across all IRAs
The one-per-twelve-months rule applies to indirect IRA-to-IRA rollovers and counts across every IRA you own, not per account. Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers are unlimited and are not counted.
59½ In-service distribution threshold
The age at which most employer plans that permit in-service rollovers will allow one. Below it, a minority of plans allow after-tax or employer-match money out and the rest allow nothing.

What people get wrong about 401(k) rollovers

The second of these is the expensive one, and it is the one a plan administrator will let you make without comment.

Does my employer have to let me roll over while I still work there?

No, separation from service is what triggers the legal requirement, and while you are still employed the plan document governs, which means two people at two companies of the same age can get different answers and both administrators are correct.

Is taking the check yourself the faster way to do it?

No, it is the expensive way. The plan withholds 20%, you have sixty days to deposit the full pre-withholding amount including the part they kept, and the shortfall comes out of your own pocket until you file. A direct rollover has no withholding and no clock.

Does the one-rollover-per-year rule block my transfer?

No, not if you take the direct route, because the rule applies only to indirect IRA-to-IRA rollovers where the money passes through your hands. Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers are unlimited, and so are rollovers out of an employer plan, so a reader doing this the clean way never touches the limit.

Can a Roth 401(k) roll into a traditional gold IRA?

No, not without a tax event, because Roth money has to land in a Roth account to stay tax-free and moving it into a traditional IRA converts it in the wrong direction. Match the tax treatment on both ends, which means Roth to Roth and traditional to traditional.

Rollover eligibility questions

Can I roll over my 401(k) while still employed?

No, unless your plan document permits an in-service distribution, and most that do open it at 59½. Federal law does not require it before separation, so the answer sits in your Summary Plan Description under in-service distributions or age-59½ withdrawals. HR has to provide that document on request, and it settles the question in one sentence.

What is the difference between a transfer and a rollover?

A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer moves money between custodians without it ever reaching you, carries no withholding, has no sixty-day clock and is unlimited in a year. An indirect rollover pays you first and gives you sixty days to redeposit, with 20% withheld from an employer plan and a one-per-year cap on IRA-to-IRA moves. Ask for the direct route by name.

Can I roll a TSP into a gold IRA?

Yes, once you have separated from federal service or reached 59½, using form TSP-99 for the withdrawal request with a direct rollover election. The TSP is an employer plan for these purposes, so the same separation rule applies, and a direct election keeps the withholding off.

Is a gold IRA rollover taxable?

No, not when it is done directly. A trustee-to-trustee transfer between accounts of the same tax type is not a taxable event and is reported on Form 1099-R with a code showing it as a rollover. An indirect rollover becomes taxable only if it misses the sixty-day window or if you fail to replace the withheld 20%.

How long does a gold IRA rollover take?

Two to four weeks is normal, and it splits into three stages: opening the receiving account, which takes a day or two, the transfer itself, which runs one to three weeks depending on how the old provider sends funds, and the metal purchase, which settles in a few days. Plans that mail a paper check rather than wiring are the usual reason it hits the far end of that range.

Can I roll over a pension into a gold IRA?

No for most pensions, because a defined-benefit plan can only move if it offers a lump-sum distribution option and most do not. The Summary Plan Description is where that is stated. Where a lump sum is available, electing it and rolling it directly is permitted, though comparing the lump sum against the lifetime annuity is a question for a preparer rather than for a calculator.