The Anduril 401(k) is the orderly half of your exit: leave it in the plan, roll it to your next employer’s plan, roll it to an IRA, or cash it out and pay for the privilege. Your equity is the urgent half — private-company shares and options sit outside the 401(k), run on contractual deadlines like post-termination exercise windows, and get no help from the tax elections (such as NUA) that apply to public-company stock held inside a plan.
Costa Mesa’s defense-tech flagship
Anduril has grown at startup speed from its Costa Mesa base, hiring software and hardware engineers, manufacturing and test staff, and program teams — often from the same talent pool as the legacy primes up the 405. Compensation at a venture-backed defense firm leans on equity in a way the primes’ never did, which reshapes what leaving actually means financially.
The plan's Form 5500 filing for 2024 (public at efast.dol.gov) lists the Anduril Industries 401(k) Plan; both Guideline, Inc. and Fidelity are listed as recordkeepers. Your statement shows which holds your account now.
Your four options for the 401(k)
This menu covers the plan balance only. Nothing in it applies to shares, options or profits interests granted outside the plan.
| Option | Good when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Leave it | Institutional share classes priced below anything retail | The plan can push out small balances, and forgotten accounts drift |
| Roll to new employer | Simplicity: future-you deals with one plan instead of several | Menus vary wildly — the receiving plan may be the weaker one |
| Roll to an IRA | Freedom to hold nearly anything and to hire the adviser you choose | Once money is in a pre-tax IRA, backdoor Roth math gets harder |
| Cash out | A verified emergency after every cheaper source of funds | Tax at your marginal rate, a likely 10% penalty under 59½, and lost decades of growth |
Things to check in your specific Anduril plan
Plan facts on this page come from the plan's public Form 5500 filing for 2024; plans change, so confirm with your current statement.
- The recordkeeper and access after departure. The plan's Form 5500 filing for 2024 (public at efast.dol.gov) lists the Anduril Industries 401(k) Plan; both Guideline, Inc. and Fidelity are listed as recordkeepers. Your statement shows which holds your account now.
- Vesting on any employer contribution. Confirm the vested figure as of your separation date in writing.
- After-tax and Roth features. Your SPD and statement show any after-tax and Roth features.
- Loan balances. Your SPD or HR explains any loan provisions and repayment options.
- Your equity documents — this week, not next. Post-termination exercise windows at private companies are commonly measured in weeks or months and are set purely by contract. Read yours before you resign, and calendar every date.
- Cash needs for any exercise. Exercising private options can require real cash for the strike price and possibly taxes, with no public market to sell into — plan the liquidity before the window forces the issue.
Why NUA is not your tool here
Employees leaving public defense companies weigh net unrealised appreciation — a tax election for employer stock held inside the qualified plan. At a private company the geometry is different: the valuable equity sits outside the 401(k) in grants and options, the plan itself typically holds ordinary funds, and so the NUA election has nothing to attach to. Your equity’s tax story is written instead by exercise timing, the AMT treatment of incentive options, potential QSBS eligibility, and any tender offers the company runs — contract-and-Code questions that reward a professional’s review well before your last day.
Always transfer directly. For the 401(k), specify a trustee-to-trustee transfer on the form. Distributions made payable to you personally lose 20% to IRC § 3405(c) withholding immediately, and the 60-day cure requires you to source that missing fifth from your own cash.
Common questions
What happens to my Anduril options if I leave before a liquidity event?
Whatever your grant agreement says — typically vesting stops, unexercised vested options face a post-termination exercise window, and any shares you hold remain subject to transfer restrictions. None of it is governed by retirement law, so those documents are the urgent reading, ahead of any 401(k) form.
Should I cash out the 401(k) to afford exercising my options?
Run the full cost first: income tax plus a likely 10% penalty on the withdrawal, against the risk-adjusted value of illiquid private shares. Sometimes a partial exercise, a longer view, or outside financing beats raiding the one asset that is already diversified and tax-advantaged. This decision deserves numbers, not adrenaline.
Can you help with both halves — the plan and the equity?
Yes, within our lanes: we model the rollover options, the exercise economics and how both fit your balance sheet, and we coordinate the tax specifics with your CPA. We take no commission on any of it — our disclosed advisory fee is our only compensation.
The window is contractual; the decision should not be rushed anyway
Bring the grant documents and the plan statement — we will build the timeline and price every path before any deadline chooses for you.