401k rollover to IRA: what should I go with?

Yes, a rollover IRA. If you want to do it yourself go with Vanguard or TDA. If you want to hire someone that is a different discussion.

If you are looking for breadth of choice and low costs I would choose Vanguard. If the amount of money is significant I would open a IRA mutual fund and link a brokerage account to it at inception. Vanguard is low frills, but the costs are rock bottom, have had accounts there > 20 years. Also have an account at Wells Fargo, 100 free trades per year with a PMA account. From experience with Fidelity in the past, their interface and fixed income capabilities were better, but that may have changed.

Here is a recent article on Vanguard and its retiring CIO:

LINK

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Someone correct if wrong, but I believe Vanguard clients are not charged any fee if all their assets are in vanguard funds.

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yeah if you do all online or have certain high $$$ balances, it is free with Vanguard.

You could also look into converting it into a Roth IRA, pay taxes on it now, and let the earnings grow tax free depending on how a conversion would impact yuor tax situation.

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Someone correct if wrong, but I believe Vanguard clients are not charged any fee if all their assets are in vanguard funds.

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If one signs up for electronic delivery of all documents the accounts are free. Vanguard ETFs and funds have no commission or sales charges. Other vendor funds vary as to whether they have a sales charge or no transaction fee, some may have a minimum holding period or deferred charge may apply. I pay $2 per trade for non-Vanguard products, YMMV.

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I'd recommend Fidelity. They have some no-fee type mutual funds of different risk levels.

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I was advising someone who was 'married' to Fidelity.

During the Bush/Paulson crash, Fidelity moved FINANCIALS into a gold mutual fund, killing all the profit I had carefully squeezed out of a down ward market.
I can no longer cannot trust them. the State of NY was able to sue Fidelity about that incident, 25 million to the injured parties.

You look at the components of the mutual fund, it looks great, and they can move ANYTHING into your supposed X fund, so its underlying weakness becomes unrelated to the supposed X, and the Z portion tanks.

Pick your own damn stocks.

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Left my employer, I have a 401k with Principal that I need to move into an IRA I'm assuming?

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