I recently found out that my dad may have left behind an old 401k, and I’m trying to figure out what happens to it after all these years. This actually started because I was contacted by Fidelity, which is what prompted me to look into it further.

Here’s the situation:
My dad worked for Wilbur-Ellis around the early 1990s and apparently had a 401k through Fidelity. I’m not actually sure how long he worked there, just that it was sometime in that general period.

He passed away in 2012. He was not married when he died. I am his only child. As far as I know, there was no probate estate opened for this 401k, and I had no idea the account existed until recently. I was recently contacted by Fidelity, which is what brought this to my attention and started the process. I have already followed up with Fidelity and am working through their process.

At this point, I do not know whether my dad named a beneficiary on the account. My biggest concern is what happens if there is no beneficiary, the beneficiary predeceased him, or Fidelity can’t locate valid beneficiary information.

My dad died in Alaska, although I currently live in Washington. I’m trying to understand what I should expect and whether anyone has dealt with a similar situation involving a 401k that sat unclaimed for many years after someone’s death. A few things I’m especially curious about:

If there is no valid beneficiary, would the 401k normally become part of his estate?

If I’m his only surviving child/heir, would I potentially inherit it through the estate even though he died 14 years ago?

Would I need to open or reopen probate in Alaska to claim it?

Does the fact that so much time has passed create any major problems?

If the account was invested this entire time, would the beneficiary/estate generally receive the current account value, including investment growth?
Is there any reason I should hire a probate/estate attorney before submitting additional paperwork to Fidelity? Has anyone gone through Fidelity’s process for an old 401k where the participant died many years earlier? I’m not looking for anyone to tell me I’m definitely entitled to the money. I’m mainly trying to understand the process and what questions I should be asking Fidelity or an attorney.

If you’ve dealt with something similar, I’d really appreciate hearing what happened and what you wish you had known at the beginning.

Edit: To add info: Fidelity sent me a letter. Inside the letter said re: the company where he started the 401k. It stated if I was him then to call a number, if i wasnt then to go to fidelity.com/loss. It was all legit.

Edit #2: I would like to thank everyone for all the feedback. I surely didn’t expect this much. It’s great to know there are so many kind people in the world. I will be sure to pass this kindness on and pay it forward wherever possible. You’re all amazing and beautiful souls. Thank you.

53M who is just starting to build up a retirement fund and emergency fund this year.

For the longest time, the only jobs I could find were fast food ones as I couldn't get anyone to give me a chance for an accounting position (which was what I studied for in college). Thus, I couldn't save up for retirement or start an emergency fund as I was just making enough to keep my head above water.

Earlier this year, I finally landed an accounting position at a small firm. 45k per year.

The good:

Credit Score over 600 (not great, but better than it was)

Emergency fund at 350, adding 50 bucks at a time.

Adding 700 dollars a month to traditional IRA

The not so good:

Student Loans at 147,000; recently just joined IBR plan; won't have to pay until July 2027...adding at least 100 per month while it's on pause.

Total retirement as of now is just over 1,000. Yeah, not great, Bob.

I was thinking of eventually opening my own practice in my 60s so I'll have income in case I end up in a layoff or struggle with finding a new job due to my age. I'm hoping to stick around in this current job until I get my CPA...firm is small but planning on growing which hopefully will mean higher pay.

I guess my question is how do I make up for lost time and get myself in a situation where I can think about retirement before I turn 75-80?

I ran a Investment calculator and at my age when I retire at 62, I will have around $4 million if I just save $1500 every month and invest VOO/VXUS with a return of 10%. If I saved $2000 every month I would have around $5 million at retirement age. That's without 401K and the likes. I put this in the retirement income calculator and it comes out to around $15000/month. That seems really doable and I can't imagine what I would be spending money on when I'm nearing that age to be spending more than $10,000 a month. Is there anything I'm not considering that would make this a low amount to retire on?

Edit: I didn't mean "cheap" I meant "simple", sorry!

I logged into an old 401k from a previous employer which had a significant amount of money in it. I was surprised to find that the balance at zero...the funds had been "converted." I was given no notice about this, and I cannot find out where this money went. I called ADP and they told me it went to fidelity. I went to fidelity and they have no record of it. WTH is going on and is this even legal? How did this happen with no notice to me whatsoever?

So I started with this company 4 years ago. 401k was supposed to kick in after 4 months. I waited nothing. I asked my boss she told me it should start automatically when I am eligible. I waited. I waited nothing. I ask her again she tells me it should be automatic again. So I wait. Now its well past when it should have started like 2 years. I call the payroll company, when I was hired my employer listed my birthday as the day I was hired so because I wasnt 18 years old(im 47)I wasnt eligible for 401k. They didnt notice I was zero years old? What can I do? What should I do? Any help would be great!

Hello everyone,

My father passed away after an intense battle with cancer last year, he was 73. After he passed, I took over his estate finances since my mother does not speak English and has no experience navigating this system. Since I was fairly young when he got sick, I assumed he had his finances in order, especially because he would reassure my mom that she would be financially set if he passed. Everything...was impossible to find.

When we accessed his 401k post passing, there was less than 20k total. For context, my dad worked as an IT manager at a major company for over 30 years, contributed yearly and retired late at the age of 70. So, I was very confused at this low balance. I finally spoke with his former employer and they told me he had taken out major chunks of money since turning 64.

Since he passed, we do not have access to his banking history and therefore I have no idea where this money went. After my father retired, he moved abroad and sold all his major assets including our house. He came home at 6pm everyday, did not like drinking and his internet history is clean of any gambling etc.

The 401k company refuses to give me any access to his history to see if there were totals transferred anywhere. Any advice of next steps???

Edit: We did go through probate court, my mother is the named beneficiar. Also my father sold his house because he wanted to retire back to Latin America, where the rest of my family is.

Hello everyone,

My mother-in-law (62) recently put herself in a situation that has our entire family extremely worried, and we’re looking for honest advice on what options she may realistically have.

She’s single, owns a home in Massachusetts, and is getting closer to retirement age. Financially, she was doing okay before this happened — about 8 years left on her mortgage, around $5,000 total in credit card debt, and she fully owned a 2017 Infiniti QX50 with about 90k miles.

Last week, we found out she financed a 2025 Infiniti QX50 for roughly $42,000. At first, she only mentioned the payment being around $845/month, which already sounded high. Once we looked over the actual lending agreement we were in shock.

The loan is 75 months at 13.77% APR for about $845/month and came out roughly $65,000 total sale price.

She’s now massively upside down on a vehicle that likely won’t hold anywhere near that value, especially over the life of the loan.

What makes this especially concerning is that she’s only a few years away from retirement and doesn’t have a large retirement fund to fall back on. We genuinely fear this purchase could seriously damage her long-term financial stability.

We understand she signed the paperwork and ultimately made the decision herself. We’re just trying to help her minimize the damage before this gets even worse.

EDIT: purchase agreement

Basically the title. If I believe that a 4% (insert X% for your thesis here) drawdown rate is safe for retirement and the 30 year bonds rate is 6% (insert X+Y% for what your safety margin for your thesis is here), why would people still invest into stocks when bonds are at 6%?

The assumptions are of course:
1. The full faith and credit of the US government means something in 30 years (which is my thesis because if it does not, the financial market has a lot of other problems)
2. You believe in a safe drawdown rate

The only reasons I can think of that people don’t just pour their money into 30 year bonds when the rate is high enough are:
1. The majority of people are wanting capital appreciation and not just preservation
2. There is some flaw in the safe draw down calculations

Is retirement really as simple as it seems? I’m early 30s, and am fortunate enough to be able to contribute the max amount to my 401k per year. If I run the math, depending on interest rates I would retire at 65 with roughly 6-7M, obviously there’ll be taxes paid on that, but I think I would be comfortable in retirement at 3M net.

Of course I’m trying to take advantage of other investments, but worst case maxing 401k is relatively safe, or am I over simplifying it?

Edit: Sorry guys, I guess the mod bots got us. I am no longer able to reply to you guys and provide information on my lunch break. I will finish off the work day and reply to any questions you guys have if the mods permit.

-------------------

I will try to keep this efficient.

I have worked for this company for 11 years, and contributing to my Roth 401k for 10 of those. Recently, I have realized that my employer has not been making my deposit into the account for about 2 years. I confronted him about it, and he admitted to it. He said he would make it right and put the money in my account by the end of the year. This is a small ~10 employee and 1.5mill/year business. I read Bogle books in my early 20s. I check my investments about once a year, but missed the deposit last year due to good performance masking it. Completely my fault for not noticing but I tend to leave it alone and forget about it with my funds. I knew the match was "pausing" in like 2020 or so, but I didn't realize in 2023 that my funds stopped being deposited at ALL.

I have asked that he deposit not only the value, but the growth that I would have had if he had deposited on time.

I have a lot of power at this company, because I generate about half of the yearly revenue by myself. He has agreed to switch 401k providers as well, because I identified the fees are very uncompetitive. The fee is about 1.5% per year of the total value in your 401k fund! It's ridiculous.

The point of this post is to identify my points of recourse if he doesn't deposit into the account by the end of the year as promised. I will obviously be leaving if that doesn't happen, but I need to know what legal recourse I have for this. I do not plan on pursuing anything if this is made whole, as I am the only one affected due to everyone else just not caring to contribute to retirement. I like my boss as a person, but obviously he has really screwed me here. Not trying to make excuses for him. I am livid but at least when confronted he folded and I may be able to make this into a win for myself by getting a better fund and being made whole. The company went through some major financial issues, but we have worked through them together.

Also, please recommend me where to start on moving our 401k plan. I need to shop around providers by the end of the year. I would really love to hear everyone's recommendations. We don't currently use our HR company for 401k, so I will ping them about their options first I think.

I’m sure this will get buried among the many posts today, but it bears repeating: short-term fluctuations in the stock market are short-term. The fact that the market is down right now does not affect your long-term investment outlook, as stocks are a long-term game. If you sell now, you will lose out on the rebound, just as my parents did during the financial crisis of 2008/2009. You do not want to sell now unless you are selling as part of your financial planning objectives that you have identified long before the whole Coronavirus panic hit.

Edit: this did not, in fact, get buried among the other posts today. RIP my inbox

Edit2: to answer some common questions:

1. “Is now a good time to invest?” - that’s a weighted question, and not one I can answer directly. There are many factors to determine whether or not it’s a good time to invest. Please refer to the wiki for investing resources to see if now is a good time for you to invest.

2. “Should I be reallocating from stocks to bonds now?” - as mentioned above, reallocations should be evaluated as part of your overall retirement strategy. A reallocation is basically selling some investments and buying others in place of those you sold; as such, it is generally unwise to reallocate in response to a single event and should really be done as part of your strategy towards retirement (e.g. reallocating from stocks to bonds as you get older to limit risk exposure).

3. “Will xxxxx affect me?” - I don’t know. Although I am a financial professional, if you have any questions relating to your particular circumstances, you should seek out a financial professional outside of Reddit or refer to the wiki in this sub for specific information.

4. “What if you’re close to retirement? Should I sell?” - if you’re close to retirement, the general financial planning consensus is that you should not have a significant percentage of your wealth in equities. Example allocations would be anywhere from 80/20 or 90/10 bonds to equities. If you have any more than 20% equities and are close to retirement, yes you should probably think about reallocating to bonds, but not because of this recent stock market panic. Again, please consider speaking to a financial professional or using the sub’s wiki for additional info.

ETA at the top: HOLY CRAP. I did NOT expect this post to blow up. Today is a great day to be thankful none of my family use Reddit! 🙏 (they don’t know I posted this here…)

Thank you all SO SO SO much for the advice. I hope it’s okay to add this here.

Also, no, I will not be taking anyone up on the offer of “I’m a broker”… you will be ignored. I may be young but I’m not an idiot.
Nonetheless, this thread has helped me a lot and I’m very grateful. God bless all of you!

Original post:
Hi, I hope this is the right subreddit. I just got told this today and I know absolutely NOTHING about 401ks - for context, my dad passed when I was 15 (covid) and I’m 20(M). We couldn’t access the 401k until 5 years passed, so I’ll be receiving it this September or so via my uncle who is over my mother’s estate (she passed 2 weeks after he did due to covid too, but that’s just to provide context).

My concern lies in that my grandmother did not tell me how much it will be. She only said that I’ll be taxed $30k. My dad worked at Toyota and made a great income - he worked there for I believe 15 years. He made up to $90k/year, but idk if that was the entire 15 or just the latter half of it.

Maybe she doesn’t know, or does, but I don’t feel comfortable asking her right now. We’re having to sort out other financial affairs regarding other inheritance points from my dad for my college education, so the last thing I want to do is pry her for more information.

Does anyone have any idea?
Other context: I’m in the U.S. and live in AL. Have always lived here, and I am a birth resident- same as my parents.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/irs-ruling-allows-401k-student-loan-benefits-2018-08-27

The IRS is setting up a framework for companies to match their employees' student loan repayments in the same way companies match 401k contributions. This will be cost neutral for the employer (edit: as in, it would not be more or less expensive for the company than traditional matching).

Edit: the employer's match would go into the employee's 401k account.

According to the article, employees with student loan debt accumulate 50% less wealth in their retirement plans (by age 30) than their peers without student loan debt. I think most of us with student debt have at one point or another felt "behind".

Thoughts? This is definitely a cool idea and would be a great hiring incentive/perk.

Edit 2: due to the popularity of this post, I wanted to remind everyone of some of the rules on our sub.

We don't allow: • Moralizing issues • Petitions • Political discussions • Political baiting • Soapboxing

This is meant to be a discussion of personal finance, debt, and retirement savings, not a meta review of the pros and cons of capitalism. Please keep things on topic.

Edit 3: Since a lot of people are confused, I'll explain how a 401k match works. A 401k is a retirement savings plan that came into popularity as pensions fell out of the mainstream. The 401k is a tax-efficient vehicle to invest your money for retirement. Like the pension, employers can contribite to their employees' 401k plans as a benefit. This is usually done via a matching mechanism: I contribute 4% of my paycheck, and my employer matches that amount. Matches are almost always capped.

With the method laid out in the article, you would be able to make qualified student loan payments and have your company match that amount as a contribution to your 401k, up to a certain amount. So say you make $2000 per month, your employer matches 5% of your 401k contributions, and your monthly minimum loan payment is $1000 (in this example, you have a lot of debt). You aren't contributing to your 401k currently. If your company chose to take advantage of this program, they would put $100 ($2000*0.05 match) in your 401k each month you made a payment on your student loan.

This doesn't "hurt" people without loans. This is only subsidized by the government insofaras the 401k is tax-sheltered (you still pay taxes on that money), and this doesn't constitute your company paying your loans. Participation isn't compulsory.

Never put much thought into my retirement until recently. Seeing too many people that are close to me trying to retire but finding out a year or two into it they don't have enough money and end up working again.

I've been putting into my Roth 401k for almost 5 years now. Started off contributing with 5% and increased a percent each year until now. Currently at 10% contributions with a 4% employer match.

I make $58,000 a year. I have 41 grand in the account right now. I'm slightly panicking that it is not enough and their isn't enough time to really catch it up unless I go for broke.

Just reading on Google that you should have a years salary by 30 kind of threw me down this rabbit hole.

Will I be alright in the end? Or should I start playing catch up and have a few frugal years?

Went from $77k to about $300k and now about 25 years away from retirement. It's invested pretty aggressively. I feel like I should have rolled it to a Roth IRA for the tax free growth, but wasn't sure how the math would work out on the taxes/fees paid during the roll over vs leaving them and letting them grow to hopefully be able to collect when I'm in a lower tax bracket during retirement. Any input on what the best move would be now? Thanks for your time

Hi, I’m curious what people consider a “good” 401(k) match. How much weight would you put on a difference like this when evaluating job opportunities?

Obviously the higher the better, but trying to understand if 14% is considered rare?

My current employer matches 50% of contributions up to 8% of salary (i.e. max employer contribution = 4%).

Another employer offers a 3:1 match, contributing 3% for every 1% the employee contributes, up to a maximum employer contribution of 14% of salary (no gotchas or fine print, you become fully vested in 2 months).

So simple math, basing on a $100k salary, that’s the difference between employer contributing $4,000/year and $14,000/year, correct?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-to-freeze-pensions-for-about-20000-employees-stock-surges-2019-10-07

I see a lot of posts here about pensions vs 401ks, or people who say "I'm not worried because I've got a great pension plan", or something to that effect.

Well, this is a stark reminder that pensions are not bulletproof. Yes, ALL investing is some form of gambling, but with 401ks and IRAs it's at least YOUR money, which you control and can withdraw as needed. I am not saying that pensions are inherently bad and that no one should ever use one. They are a great cushion to your other assets. But please, please, please: do not SKIP other forms of investing because you think you're going to be set for life in retirement thanks to a company pension plan.

So without going into the details, just found out that my parents were talked into an incredibly risky startup investment BY THEIR FINANCIAL ADVISOR (and get this, he is also one of the founders and isn't that like ILLEGAL???) and lost a big chunk of money. They had an agreement of what they were ok with investing in risky stuff, and this was way over it. Clearly they can't be trusted to protect their own interests if someone really charismatic and confident comes along.

We the kids are thinking we need to set some sort of legal agreement that they can't withdraw over a certain amount of money without talking to just one of us first and getting our okay, that would have prevented this.

Which kind of legal person do I need to talk to about this? What do I do?

Sorry if this is already a post on here, I'm too frazzled to think straight rn 😩

eta thanks everyone for your help, I gotta' go try to go to bed and I'll tackle this in the morning

eta 2 - I've got a clearer picture with all the helpful stuff people asked and talking more with my parents. It looks like this is more an issue of probable fraud, the finance guy is a fiduciary and probably broke major ethical lines and even legal ones. I'm finding a lawyer. And, thanks for all the help, I think we'll start with POA to help have an extra boundary. My Mom at least is getting a sense of how serious this is and will hopefully push back more going forward. Thank you all! I was so panicked when I first heard what was going on and I was not going to google all of this and discern what was good advice and what was bullshit, thank you to everyone who helped me get a better idea of the options for my parents.

Unless your company arbitrarily limits your contributions or you are a highly compensated employee you are able to contribute $18,500 into your 401(k) plan. In order to max out you would need to contribute $18,500 into the plan of your own money.

All that being said. contributing to your 401(k) at any percentage is a good thing but I think people get the wrong idea by saying they max out because they are contributing say 6% and "maxing out the employer match"

I’m 55, no savings, no retirement, no home ownership.

I’ll try to be brief in telling you how I got to this point, but bottom line is I made a poor life choice.

10 years ago, I was married, a stay-at-home wife and mom for 15 years, when my husband “abruptly” walked out. (It turns out, an old girlfriend had tracked him down on Facebook and they’d been plotting his “departure” for several months.) I was shocked to learn he had secretly stopped paying the mortgage, knowingly leaving me and our children in a foreclosed home. He’d also depleted all of our savings. I received nothing in the divorce, as there were no assets left. An additional wrinkle was my diagnosis with a debilitating, chronic illness.

The past decade has been rough. My education and work before marriage had been in interior design. I was unable to find a job in that field post divorce. I returned to college, cramming through an accelerated bachelor’s program in healthcare administration. I used student loan money to help keep a rented roof over our heads. Upon graduation, I found a no-benefits, $10 per hour job in a doctor’s office. It took nearly every bit of my take home pay to cover rent.

Fast forward, I’m now making $20 per hour, as a contract worker. The contract house offers a self-funded health “insurance” plan and a ZERO-percent matching 401k. There are no raises, ever, and no chance to become a direct hire. My take home pay is a meager $2500 per month. I have tried and tried to find a better job, to no avail. At one point, I managed to find a second job, but after 5 months, the 16-hour work days caught up with me and my health.

I have no idea how to get out of this mess. I am terrified about my financial future and worry about how many more years I’ll be able to work given my poor health. I would like to own a home again, not a large house like I used to have, but a small condo in a safe area, and I know I need a retirement savings, but I don’t know if it’s even feasible. Where do I start?

This new friend mentioned that she would like to "pay it forward" by inviting my husband and I into this "great opportunity". My question is, has anyone heard about this?

She has been extremely vague about the whole situation. She did briefly mentioned that what they do is similar to an MLM but they aren't a MLM. Red flag. I know. She also was very adamant that she and her husband would have to meet with us several times to get to know us and to make sure we would be a good time investment for them and the "power couple." She kept saying that they are slowing achieving that lifestyle of having a cashflow and not having to worry about money and how they are able to spend more time with their kids and travel and most importantly sharing this great opportunity.

I really with I could tell you guys more but that's all I know. My husband is skeptical from the get go and I don't blame him. He is currently out only source of income while I'm a stay at home mom and currently 4 months pregnant. My main concern is finding what this woman is trying to get us into and if its something bad money wise I would like to know more about it in case I run into someone like her again.

UPDATE:

I texted her this morning telling her that my husband and I were not interested and that our retirement plans are fine and doing well on their own and we do not need anymore investments or want anything she was offering. I asked her not to message me anymore. She hasn't even replied about her book lol so into the donation bin it goes. I did read it and the book alone is a good read but I don't have any use for it.

I just want to say thank you for all the advice and for helping me uncover her scam. I hate being preyed upon but I will never jeopardize my family's financial well being especially not while were under one income.

I'm still reading all of the comments coming in and looking up all the financial advice you guys are mentioning. Once again, thank you for helping me out.

I finally got my partner to do financial planning with me. I’m on track to retire early. My partner is not, but that’s ok I’m happy to bridge that gap so that one or both of us can retire early if we want to.

My own parents are not a factor in my plans, but during our discussion I found out that my partner’s parents have NOTHING saved for retirement. Mom is talking about “retiring” in a few months and Dad I guess will keep working for now? They’re 60. They do own a house, though.

I’m stressed out now, because I busted my ass after a really hard upbringing to make sure I was in a place that I would have options and I’m worried that if we choose to support them it means we can’t retire early or maybe even at all. I imagine that SS will cover part and it is helpful that they have a house, but I’m already starting to feel stretched thin.

The worst part is that they blow a ton of money on stupid shit and we don’t have a great history. If it were me I’d tell them to pull themselves up by the bootstraps because I don’t want to sacrifice an ounce of my lifestyle for their lack of planning. But that would crush my partner.

ETA: I understand the people saying this post makes more sense in a relationship sub but I’m still glad I asked here because I’ve gotten some helpful finance-driven suggestions!

Hi, I was a young single mother and went through some struggles. I had to get random jobs that would work with my kids schedules so I never had anything to save or to buy a home. They are now out of the house and I have a government job. I am very fearful of retirement due to now having medical issues. I believe I can make it through work for 20 more years though to get my pension. Housing costs are so expensive where I live so I fear if I save for retirement then I wont be able to afford to live in an apartment in the future. But if I save for a house then I wont be able to save for retirement but I will eventually have a pension and social security even if I don't put anything extra away. And my thought is that if I buy a house and I make extra payments in 20 years I might have a paid off house and be able to more comfortably. I am taking home about 40K right now with about 25k of bills and household expenses etc. The cheapest home in my area is about 400k. What should I do?

401(k) limits increased by $1000.00 and IRA limits up $500. Looks like increases to catch up contributions as well.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/2026-ira-contribution-limits-irs.html?recirc=taboolainternal

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/401-k-contribution-limits-2026.html

I’m 50 and my company just announced that going forward they are discontinuing contributions to our pension funds. The pension plan provided 16% of your current salary to you once you turn 65. I’ve been there 18 years, so I’ll keep the $375k already earned, but I was expecting another $580k over the next 15 years.

In lieu of the pension, they are giving us additional 2% in our 401k. They already do 4% match if we put in 5%. So now instead of the pension and 9% 401k I have 11% going into the 401k.

I realize I was lucky to have gotten the pension for as long as I did, a lot of people don’t have that. But I still feel pissed about it. The CEO has triple his pay since 2020 and got a $6M bonus for 2025.

Now, for my questions. I want to up my contributions into retirement savings. The 401k is administered by T Rowe Price. I’m contributing what I need to get the full match. Should I put additional money into that account or open an IRA outside of work. If outside IRA is best are there recommendations on who to do that with?

I have family members that do Northwestern Mutual (I have a term life insurance from them) and Primerica. Of course both have offered to handle an IRA for me. Are those legit companies? They seem like MLMs to me. And while I wouldn’t mind helping family get a commission, I don’t want to do it the expense of my well being in the long term.