Need advice on 401(k) - business transferring ownership, "transition" plan sounds bad

[suranyi]

@fruitbat

Agreed suprisingly often it isn’t.

I often find people shocked that they can’t do what they want. I know of at least one university system for instance that decided that you had to convert at least 50% of your 401k balance to an annuity at retirement. So long as you were in the plan you were stuck with their rules.

If it was a university it likely wasn’t a 401k at all. A university is probably a government or non-profit entity, and they don’t qualify to create 401k programs for their employees. They usually create a 403b or 457. It is superficially similar, but the details are very different. For example, in many 403b plans you must put a significant part of your money into annuities.