Leaving a job doesn't mean leaving your retirement savings behind, but it does mean making a choice about where that money lives next. Here are the three options.
1. Keep it with the prior employer. Often allowed, but easy to lose track of over time. Your investment choices are limited to whatever that plan offers.
2. Move it to your new employer's plan. Keeps things consolidated going forward. Like option 1, your investment choices are limited to whatever the new plan offers.
3. Roll it into a personal IRA. Known as a Rollover IRA, opened at a custodian like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard. This option typically has the widest range of investment choices, and lets you view multiple old employer accounts in one place if you consolidate them there. See Custodians for more on choosing where to open one.
Lost track of an old plan?
Department of Labor tool for locating retirement accounts left behind at former employers.
More search tools, including the Form 5500 database, are on the Helpful Links page.
Once you've decided where an old account should go, see Types of Accounts for how a Rollover IRA fits alongside your other accounts, and 2026 Contribution Limits for how much you can still add each year.