[lana094]

Hi,

I have 401 plan with company that I left a couple years ago. Six months ago they moved all 401 plans to another provider and failed to informed me. During this move that chose a mutual fund for my money and I lost about $500.00 because of it.
My question is: were they supposed to put my money to money market till I get access to this new company and will make my own changes.
Can I sue them through small claims court to get my $500.00 back?

Thank you for your advise

[George_1950]

Hi lana and welcome to AMHD. You didn't specify why your 401k is $500 less, but if it is because the market is down (I think it peaked in November 2007), there may not be much you can do. I believe you can request a distribution to yourself and establish an IRA rollover, if you want to take responsibility for making investment decisions. Check this:
To Rollover Or Not To Rollover To An IRA, That Is The Question

[froggy7]

From what I remember from having had this happen to me, they are required to put the money into "similar" funds that the new provider has. So, bond funds to bond funds, small cap to small cap, etc. Because that's how you had it allocated. Now, if the small cap fund at the first company was doing really well, and the equivalent fund at the new one is not, they aren't required to look at the outcomes, just what the allocation is.

So, essentially, I think that you are out of luck on this one. Just rebalance your portfolio and hope that that loss is recovered. Keep in mind that playing stocks is always a risk, and, as they always say, past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.