Thread: TSP Roll over to IRA

Welcome ashdown. I can say with certainty that gov't employees cannot do that, but it may be different for the military - although the documentation leads me to believe you cannot make a rollover while still in the military...

From www.tsp.gov...

Are there any limitations on making withdrawals while still in service?

The TSP is a long-term retirement savings plan that provides special tax advantages. Limitations on in-service withdrawals help ensure that retirement savings will be used for their intended purpose. Therefore, TSP participants who are still members of the uniformed services, including those employees in non-pay status, are limited to the following two types of in-service withdrawals:

• Age-based in-service withdrawals for participants who are 59½ or older.

• Financial hardship in-service withdrawals for participants who can certify that they have a financial hardship.

When you make an in-service withdrawal, you cannot return or repay the money you remove from your account, so you permanently deplete your retirement savings and future earnings on the amount withdrawn. If you are in pay status, before making an in-service withdrawal you should evaluate your options to see if a TSP loan would be more beneficial. (See "TSP Loan Program.") If you have an outstanding TSP loan, making an in-service withdrawal will not eliminate the requirement to make loan payments. (Note: If you have tax-exempt money in your TSP account as a result of contributions from pay earned in a combat zone, when you make an in-service withdrawal, the money will be taken proportionally from the tax-deferred and the tax-exempt balances in your account.)
What are the rules for an age-based withdrawal?

Although few uniformed services members will serve beyond age 59½, if you are an active member of the uniformed services at or after age 59½, you can make a one-time-only withdrawal of all or any portion of your vested account balance. (If you have a uniformed services and a civilian TSP account, you can only make an age-based withdrawal from the account(s) associated with your current employment. If you are in Federal service and the Ready Reserve, you can make an age-based withdrawal from each of your TSP accounts.) Your request must be for at least $1,000 or for your entire account balance (even if your balance is less than $1,000).


If you make an age-based withdrawal from a TSP account, you will not be eligible for a partial withdrawal from that account after you separate from service.

Thank you very much for the reply. I wasnt sure if that was how it was applied. Thanks again!

anyone have experience in the rollover after separation? I'm considering it - but don't know what the hassle-factor is w/ TSP.

It's pretty easy.

Tom's right. Didn't do it for myself though. TSP 70,(02/02/10 version). On the first page, enter how much, single or monthly payments, you want to provide to the IRA. The 2nd page, you provide some transfer info, address of IRA company, and enter a few other bits of info about IRA plan. Sign and send.

Originally Posted by JimmyJoe

Tom's right. Didn't do it for myself though. TSP 70,(02/02/10 version). On the first page, enter how much, single or monthly payments, you want to provide to the IRA. The 2nd page, you provide some transfer info, address of IRA company, and enter a few other bits of info about IRA plan. Sign and send.

Moving $110k from TSP to Vanguard IRA then will convert to Roth over the course of 4-5 years. I have $17k in tax exempt. Trying to figure out how the IRS will treat this conversion. I need to separate the $17k from taxable portion?

Learned that military members us TSP-U-70 (Feb 2010) rather than just the TSP-70. (U=Uniformed?). Still reading over the long instructions - probably will tell me how to divide the tax free from the taxable.

The rollover/conversion was pretty easy. I used Fidelity, and I'm sure Vanguard does just as well with facilitating the process. When it comes to the tax treatment, though, probably everyone will refer you to a tax advisor because they don't want any liability associated with giving tax advice. I rolled mine over all in one year, so it was easy.
It sounds like you have more than I did, so it probably makes sense to spread out the conversion. You'll have to do some research on your own to figure out how to distribute the tax exempt contributions, or else hire a professional as suggested.

never mind - it was a stoopid rant.

Originally Posted by airborne1092

never mind - it was a stoopid rant.

Welcome airborne! I actually read your post when I received the email update - it wasn't "stoopid". You brought up some good points.

Thanks for joining us and I hope you continue to post.

I'm doing it Right now......No Burro, not your favorite pass time...


I'm Rolling my TSP into an IRA thingy..I'll be the first to admit..I'm not the brightest when it comes to these things..So I will report back once I know exactly what I'm getting into..The Money dude said it will earn me; Best case, 14% and worst case, 5%..so he said I should look for an average yield of about 9.5% annually typically..It sounds pretty good to me..But like I said, I don't know if it is good or not...

Ahh this is exactly what I'm looking in to doing, anyone have any other tips on this? I'm going to visit my investment account and see if there is anything around...