[redfoxky]

The company that I worked for last fall sold out to a new company. They rolled my 401k into the new company's 401k. But here's the problem, I had money invested in the old company's stock fund. They tell me I have to get rid of it by by the end of the year. This stock fund has dropped to less than half of last falls price. I would like to hold on to it to see if the market comes up? Do I have any options? I will be 59 next month any it crunch time.

[ScottGem]

If the company sold out then their stock may no longer be viable. All stockholders should have been issued new shares in the buying company or the new company should have purchased them at the sale price.

So the stock is not going to come back up since the company no longer exists. You need to find out the terms of the sale to find out how the transfer of stock was handled.

[ebaines]

I had the same thing happen to me a few years back - my division was sold to another company, and per IRS rules we had to sell the stock of the former company out of our 401(k) accounts. I think we were given something like 6 months to do it on our own, or else it was all sold automatically at the deadline. In my case the company stock was down to about 20% of its high, so I feel your pain!

Unfortunately there's not much you can do. In general 401(k) plans are not allowed to hold company stock as investements except for the employer's own stock. So once you no longer work for the old company the stock has to be removed from the investment choices. You have 10 months remaining to make the switch - my advice is sell a bit at a time, each month so that you have some chance of avoiding the low for the year.