I quit my job with a 401K about 90 days ago. My 401K with ING had almost $17,000 in it. I was 100% vested. I did not get a letter or anything asking what to do with my 401K so I assumed it would stay with ING... which is what I wanted it to do. I did not want to cash it out or move it to another account. I got a statement from ING yesterday saying my balance was ZERO. Where did my money go? (of course it was Friday night when I opened the statement and I have to wait all weekend before someone will be back in their customer service dept.)

We can't tell you, Did the statement include a transaction listing?

Not all company plans allow you to leave your 401(k) in the plan after termination. Its possible a check has been sent to you since you didn't specify what to do with it. This is not terrible since, you will have 60 days to roll over the proceeds into an IRA to prevent any tax implications.

They may have automatically ( because of the terms of that investment) just closed it and have mailed you a check , since you did not contact them.

And the last thing you need is for them to send you a check, since they will hold out the penalty and interest normally.

If you do get the check, consider putting it into a Roth IRA since you would have already had the taxes paid on it

Please let us know what ING customer service tells you. Many plans do automatically cash out ex-employees' account after 90 days. If a check is on its way, you should consider putting the money into a rollover IRA. However, you must put the full amount of the withdrawal I($17K) into the rollowver IRA to avoid taxes or early withdrawal penalties - and since ING probably withheld 20% for federal taxes (which is normal practice), this means you must come up with the 20% extra to fund the rollover account. Also as ScottGem noted you have 60 days from the date of the distribution to complete the transaction - get int done in time and you will not owe taxes or penalties. If you procrastnate, you'll have to report the entire distribution as income and pay taxes and penalties. I suggest you start investigating investment houses like Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, etc. so you can get the paperwork going ASAP.

I disagree with Fr_Chuck's suggstion to put it in a Roth - I don't believe it's possible. Instead, you will be creating a new rollover IRA account, using pre-tax money.