When people ask what they should do with their 401(k), they usually think there are two choices: leave it where it is or roll it into an IRA.
In reality, there are four. And one of them—arguably the most useful for people still working—is the one almost nobody talks about.
Here is the part I want you to hear first, because it changes everything that follows: this is always a planning decision before it is an investment decision. I have never given the same answer to two people, because no two people have the same picture—income, taxes, timeline, risk tolerance, and how this one account fits into the broader retirement income plan. The account is just one piece. The plan is the whole puzzle.
What are my options for my 401(k)?
You generally have four options when it comes to your 401(k), whether you are still working or have left your employer:
Leave it in the plan and actively manage it
Roll it into an IRA after you leave or retire
Use an in-service rollover, if your plan allows it
Leave it where it is and do nothing
Most people only hear about two of these. That gap in awareness can lead to missed opportunities—especially for those still actively contributing.
Can someone manage my 401(k) while I’m still working?
Yes—your 401(k) can often be professionally managed while you are still employed, contributing, and receiving your employer match. You do not have to leave your job or roll the money out to get professional 401(k) management.
This is the option that tends to surprise people the most. Most folks assume they cannot get help managing their 401(k) until they leave the job. Not true. Advisors can now manage these workplace accounts as “held-away” assets—meaning the money stays right where it is, inside your employer’s plan, while a professional manages the investments for you.
In most workplace retirement plans—a corporate 401(k), a teacher’s or nonprofit 403(b), or a government 457—management happens within the plan itself. That means working with the plan’s existing investment menu and, in some cases, using a self-directed brokerage window if the plan offers one, which can expand the available investment choices.
Not every plan allows direct management, and that is worth being upfront about. The federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a good example: its structure does not permit an outside advisor to actively manage the account the way a private 401(k) with a brokerage window can. In those cases we cannot offer direct management—but we can still educate you on your options: how to think about the TSP fund choices, how the account coordinates with the rest of your household, and how to plan the eventual rollover when you separate or retire. For federal employees, we go deeper into this in our guide to FERS retirement planning and TSP strategy for New Jersey federal employees. The service you receive depends on what your specific plan permits.
This is very different from how most participants experience their plan. Many default into a target-date fund, which follows a preset glidepath and automatically shifts from stocks to bonds based largely on age. That approach can be useful, but it is standardized. It does not know your other accounts, it does not read the market, and it does not know your actual retirement date. It only knows how old you are.
Active in-plan participant management is more deliberate. It involves adjusting allocations based on where you are in your career, how close you are to retirement, and how this account fits with everything else you own. As retirement approaches, that often means managing risk more intentionally—not on autopilot, but in coordination with your broader plan.
Importantly, you can do this while continuing to contribute and receive your employer match.
Here is something most people never realize: the reason nobody has actively guided your 401(k) is not neglect. It is the way the rules are written. Ask yourself who is really watching your 401(k) right now. Not your employer. Not the recordkeeper who holds the money. And, honestly, usually not you. That is not a knock on anyone—it is structural.
Under federal retirement law, the people connected to your plan can educate you, but they have to stop short of actual advice. Your recordkeeper or the plan’s broker can walk you through the fund menu, explain the difference between a stock fund and a bond fund, or show you a general allocation model. What they cannot do is tell you, “for your situation, move your money into this specific fund.” The moment they say invest in XYZ, that is a recommendation—and under ERISA, giving individualized investment advice for compensation makes them a fiduciary, with all the legal responsibility that carries.[^1] Most providers deliberately stay on the education side of that line, and often cannot wear both hats at once anyway.
So if you have ever wondered, “does my 401(k) even have a financial advisor?”—for most people, the honest answer is no. That is the gap almost no one explains: the people closest to your money are structured to inform you, not to advise you. The exception is the entire point of professional 401(k) management—an advisor can step in and actively manage your workplace account, but only by formally accepting fiduciary responsibility for that guidance. That is not a loophole; it is the mechanism the law built so someone qualified can take ownership of your account, in your best interest, while you keep working and keep contributing. Whether it is possible depends on your specific plan—some allow in-plan management, some do not.
And whatever you decide, the employer match matters. If your employer offers a 50% match on the first 6% of salary, contributing that 6% is effectively an immediate 50% return on those dollars before any market growth. Leaving that on the table is one of the most common avoidable mistakes I see—and the good news is that professional management never requires you to stop contributing or give up that match.
Should I manage my own 401(k) or hire an advisor?
This is the question I hear most, and there is no single right answer—it depends on how confident you feel and how complex your picture is.
Plenty of people do a fine job managing their own 401(k) for years. But “managing it yourself” and “not really touching it” are two very different things, and in practice most self-directed accounts drift into the second. If you enjoy reviewing your allocation, understand how it coordinates with your other accounts, and actually rebalance, do-it-yourself can work. If your 401(k) has quietly become one of your largest assets and you are not sure it still fits your timeline, getting help managing your 401(k) is worth a conversation.
The deciding factor is usually not confidence—it is coordination. A do-it-yourself investor can pick reasonable funds, but it is much harder to manage one account in isolation from everything else you own. That is where professional in-plan management earns its keep.
Most of the participants I work with are here in South Jersey—Marlton, Mount Laurel, Cherry Hill, and the surrounding towns—along with clients across the river in the Philadelphia area, where many large employers offer exactly these kinds of plans. But the account itself lives online, so this kind of held-away management works just as well whether we sit down together locally or meet virtually. What matters is the fit and the plan, not the ZIP code.
This is also where transparency matters. There are times when the best move is to keep assets in the plan and manage them there—even though that does not always align with how advisors are traditionally compensated. My approach is simple: I will tell you when a move benefits you, and when staying put makes more sense, even if it does not benefit me.
Does a 401(k) grow differently than an IRA?
No—the account type does not determine the growth rate of your investments.
This is one of the most common misconceptions I run into, so let me be blunt about it. A given investment earns what it earns whether it sits in a traditional 401(k) or a traditional IRA. Both accounts are tax-deferred, so you are not paying tax each year on dividends, interest, or capital gains inside the account.
That is different from a taxable brokerage account, where investment income and realized gains can create annual tax drag. So while the investment itself may perform the same, the after-tax result can differ depending on the type of account holding it.
What actually differs between accounts are the surrounding factors:
Fees and expense structures
Available investment options
Tax treatment and future withdrawal rules
Creditor protection
Access to advice or active management
Contributions increase the size of the account, but they do not change the rate of return on the underlying investments. That is why the rollover question should not be about chasing “better growth.” It should be about which account structure best fits your plan.
Should I roll my 401(k) into an IRA when I retire?
Rolling a 401(k) into an IRA after leaving a job is a common option, and in many cases it makes sense—but it is not automatically the right move.
An IRA can provide broader investment flexibility and allow for account consolidation, which can be helpful when building a retirement income strategy. But there are trade-offs:
Differences in fees and investment options
Loss of certain plan-level features or protections
The impact on future tax strategies
One of the more technical—but important—considerations is how this decision interacts with Roth conversions.
When you convert IRA money to Roth, the IRS looks at all of your traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs combined to determine how much of that conversion is taxable. This is known as the pro-rata rule. However, 401(k) assets are not included in that calculation.
That distinction creates planning flexibility. In some situations, keeping assets in a 401(k)—or even rolling IRA assets back into a 401(k) if the plan allows—can help isolate after-tax basis and make Roth conversion strategies cleaner. It is a quiet piece of the tax code that most people never get told about.
I will go deeper into Roth conversions in a future article, but the key point here is that a rollover decision has tax implications that go beyond investment selection.
A rollover is a tool, not a default.
What is an in-service rollover?
An in-service rollover allows you to move a portion of your 401(k) to an IRA while you are still employed.
This is highly plan-specific, but here is the key detail most people are not aware of: many plans permit in-service withdrawals of pre-tax money starting at age 59½ while you are still employed and still contributing.
As fiduciary advisors, our job is to help you understand whether those options exist in your specific plan and how they might fit into your broader retirement strategy.
That means you may be able to:
Continue contributing to your 401(k) and receiving your employer match
Move a portion of your existing balance into an IRA
This creates a hybrid structure where part of your retirement assets remain in the workplace plan, while another portion is managed outside of it.
Not every plan allows this, and the rules vary based on the plan document and recordkeeper. But it is an option worth knowing about, particularly for those approaching retirement who want more flexibility without fully separating from their employer.
Is it better to leave my 401(k) where it is?
Sometimes yes—and sometimes that is just inertia disguised as a decision.
Leaving your 401(k) in place can make sense if the plan has strong investment options, reasonable costs, and it fits into your broader strategy. But there is a difference between choosing to leave it and simply not addressing it.
Be honest: could you say what your 401(k) is invested in right now? Most people cannot—and it is not their fault. You picked those funds once, maybe in a rushed enrollment window years ago, and life took over. Meanwhile it quietly became one of the largest sums of money you will ever have.
I often see accounts that have not been rebalanced in years, contribution rates that have not been revisited, and allocations that no longer reflect the investor’s timeline or risk tolerance. That is not a strategy. That is a parked car with a dead battery.
Whether the account stays in the plan or not, it should be aligned with a broader retirement income plan—how it will be used, how withdrawals will be structured, and how taxes will be managed over time. Good planning is less about products and more about understanding the behavior and decisions behind the money.
This is also where timing decisions begin to overlap. When you leave your job and when you claim Social Security are separate decisions—but they influence each other. Getting that sequence right can have a meaningful impact on long-term outcomes.
Bringing it together
The biggest misconception around 401(k)s is that they are static accounts with limited choices.
In reality, you have multiple paths—and the right one depends on how all the pieces fit together.
For many people still working, the most overlooked opportunity is simple: your 401(k) does not have to be on autopilot.
It can be actively managed. It can be coordinated with your broader plan. And it can evolve as you get closer to retirement.
If you would like a second set of eyes on the 401(k) you are contributing to right now—whether you are in South Jersey, the Philadelphia area, or working with us virtually—you can schedule a complimentary, no-obligation 401(k) review.
1 U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration — Retirement Security Rule and Conflict of Interest FAQs, which distinguish non-fiduciary investment education from fiduciary investment advice (a specific recommendation to buy, hold, or sell). See dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/laws/erisa/retirement-security.
Scott E. Jones, BFA™, CPFA®, CRPC®, RFC® is the founder of Genesis Wealth Advisor Group, LLC, specializing in retirement income planning, 401(k) management, and wealth strategies for individuals, business owners, and families. Jones also supports growth-minded financial professionals through the Genesis Advisor Alliance affiliation model for independent financial advisors. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Please consult with a qualified professional before making any financial decisions.