You leave a job. Two weeks later a letter arrives from a company you have never heard of, explaining that your retirement plan balance requires an election, and offering four boxes to check.
Most people check whichever box the letter seems to prefer.
That letter is one of the highest stakes pieces of mail you will ever receive, and it is written like a parking notice.
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Three of the four choices are reversible. One of them is a taxable event you cannot undo, and it is the one that looks simplest.
So let us go through what actually happens to the money, in order, with the traps marked.