What to do with all these plans?

I have 4 retirement plans from former employers. I have one TSP, one 401K, one 457, and one North Carolina state retirement plan. I would like to roll all of these into a single IRA for the ease of dealing with them. I have taken a bit of a hit, like everyone else. Would I be losing out if I switched before being able to recoup some of the loses? How should I go about doing this? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Woullard,

Yes, you can move all of these plans to a Traditional IRA (TIRA) or to a ROTH IRA or a mix of both types of IRAs. Money going into a ROTH IRA will be subject to income tax in the year it is converted.

For 2009 your Modified Adjsuted Gross Income must be less than $100,000. After 2009 that limit goes away. For 2010 conversions to ROTH IRAs, the tax is spread over 2011 and 2012 tax years. Or you can opt out of that provision and pay the tax on your 2010 tax return.

The first thing you need to do is determine who you want as your IRA Custodian. This can be a bank or credit union, an insurace company, a brokerage company, a mutual fund company, etc. Don't go with Bernie Madoff.

Contact the organization of your choice and tell them what you want to do, "open an IRA and TRANSFER the money from your retirement plans to the IRA". The custodian you have selected will send you the necessary paperwork to open the account. This custodian will handle the transfer process.

I used the word transfer, because you do not want a Rollover. A trustee to trustee transfer does not count as a rollover and their is no need for income tax withholding on the transfer.

Sometimes the retirement plan custodian will make the check out "FBO Woullard and New Custodian" and mail the check to you. This is OK, you will sign the check and send it on to your IRA custodian.

Be sure to name individual(s) as Beneficiary to your new IRA(s).

Next you need to determine where you want your IRA money invested.

The easiest way is to transfer all to an IRA. However, you should look into a Roth IRA particularly in 2010 as there are some advantages to doing that and a unique window is opening up in 2010.
The mechanics of the transfer are pretty easy (more here on how to transfer a 401k (http://www.rolloveraid.com/401krollover.htm) ) but the bigger issue is how to invest the funds. And by the way, the process is called a 401k transfer but I have seen many websites, and even custodians, mix up the two terms.

Good advice above. I would only add this: Most employer plans have high management fees (higher than IRA accounts in most cases). So you should make the transfer sooner rather than later.

I'm generalizing of course, but that's what is done in discussion groups.