I just left my company and will not likely work in another company with a 401(k) plan. What are my options? Can I combine these accounts into one 401(k) or should I drop the funds into a Roth IRA? Fidelity has a promotion for up to one year of commission-free trades and I'm tempted to take advantage of it.

Going from a 401K to a Roth you will get hit with taxes. It might be just as good to open a Rollover IRA and make it traditional so that you wont get hit. Then start a new Roth account for new monies...

I'd rollover your old 401k into a rollover IRA at any online broker. You will have many more option for investing your money. Instead of the 10 or 20 mutual funds you can choose from in your 401k... You will have thousands of mutual funds and thousands of stocks to choose from with Etrade, TD, Fidelity, etc. I would take Fidelity up on their promotion. After you set up your rollover IRA, I would consider converting that to a Roth. That's the smartest financial move you can make. You will get hit with taxes on the conversion, so it's something to think about. If you know you will have a tax year in which your income will be lower, you may consider doing it then.My wife took this year off to be home with the kids, which will drop us into a lower tax bracket. I took advantage of that to convert all of my IRA's into Roths.

A traditional 401K needs to be rolled to a rollover IRA which is not a Roth IRA. However, if you took advantage of the Roth 401K that was made available last year, then you could probably roll that to a Roth IRA (not absolutely sure since these are very new but that would seem reasonable).In some cases, you will not have a choice to keep your 401K with you current company. There are generally limits and if you're not over those limits, then you have to move.In most cases, it does make sense to move both accounts to a common IRA. You will have a wider range of investments options open to you. Usually there is no annual maintenance fees on the IRA accounts. And it keeps the accounting simpler for you, only one place to look for info as opposed to two.If you are over 55 and need to access the money, the rules are different for a 401k as opposed to an IRA. So in that specific circumstance, more research should be done.Fidelity's a good place to keep your account, as well as Vanguard. I would probably let my mutual funds selections drive where I placed my account. If I wanted to buy more Vanguard funds versus Fidelity funds, then I would choose Vanguard. If you plan to invest in individual stocks or ETF's, then Fidelity's free trade offer sounds good.

Roth IRA