New Job: Transfer old 401k to new or Rollover to IRA

Holy shite... I was about to post this exact question.

Is leaving it an option? My current 401k has incredibly low fees (like <.02%) and decent fund performance, so leaving is my likely option vs IRA.

What are your new fund options? Are there low fees? Can you take loans against the rollover balance if in new 401k?

To me, the IRA rollover is the leading option. If your new plan gives you a lot of options and will allow you invest and diversify how you wish for low fees, then you should rollover to new 401k plan.

No, can't leave it. New fund options are pretty good. Low fees and quality funds, mostly through Schwabb.

I can't imagine ever taking a loan against the balance. I have plenty in taxable accounts for something like that.

I know if I want to eventually do a back door Roth, I should stay away from the IRA option. But I don't really see myself doing that either.

I guess there are really no red flags either way for my current situation.

This

Do you want steak (IRA) or meatloaf (401k). IRA is certainly going to more expensive depending on where you choose, but more options to choose from.

One downside to rolling it over to an IRA is that you lose the ability (or greatly reduce it) to do backdoor Roth IRA contributions if you/your spouse do or will exceed the Roth IRA income limits.

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I know if I want to eventually do a back door Roth, I should stay away from the IRA option. But I don't really see myself doing that either.

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Some other points to consider is you may have more creditor/lawsuit protection in a 401k vs IRA depending on what your state provisions allow, and a 401k allows penalty free withdrawals at 55 instead of 59.5, so if early retired you could start Roth conversions at that point perhaps at a lower marginal tax rate, etc. If the new 401k has good options at low cost that is one thing, if poor/high cost options then IRA looks much more appealing.