Whatever MemorialCare account you hold, confirm its plan type with your statement, SPD or HR. The balance faces the familiar four choices: leave it, take it to the next employer’s plan, roll it to an IRA, or cash out and pay the taxman. Start by confirming which plan type is yours, because the paperwork differs even where the options do not.
The hospital system in our backyard
MemorialCare’s hospitals — Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children’s & Women’s in Long Beach, with sister facilities in Orange County — sit closer to our Norwalk office than almost any employer we write about. Its clinical and support workforce lives throughout the same cities our clients do, and hospital shift work leaves little daylight for benefits paperwork.
The plan's Form 5500 filing for 2024 (public at efast.dol.gov) lists the MemorialCare 401(k) Plan (sponsored by Memorial Health Services); Vanguard is listed for recordkeeping. Ask HR and check your statement and SPD for any other plan types.
Your four options
The menu below is federal and universal; how smoothly each option executes depends on the plan specifics you will verify first.
| Option | Good when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Leave it | The current plan is cheap, well run, and you may return someday | Forced cash-outs of small balances; one more account to forget |
| Roll to new employer | A single consolidated plan balance is simpler to manage | Read the new plan’s fees before assuming it is an upgrade |
| Roll to an IRA | Maximum control over investments, beneficiaries, and advice | Mixing pre-tax IRA dollars complicates future Roth conversion planning |
| Cash out | No other option exists and the need is immediate | Ordinary income tax, usually a 10% penalty under 59½, and the money never compounds again |
Things to check in your specific MemorialCare 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.
- Your plan type and its recordkeeper. The plan's Form 5500 filing for 2024 (public at efast.dol.gov) lists the MemorialCare 401(k) Plan (sponsored by Memorial Health Services); Vanguard is listed for recordkeeping.
- Accounts at more than one facility. Service across multiple MemorialCare entities can leave balances in more than one place — ask HR to run a full search.
- Vesting on system contributions. Confirm your vested percentage in writing before locking a final day.
- Annuity wrappers on 403(b) money. Your statement, SPD or HR confirms the contract type and any surrender terms.
- Loans and after-tax contributions. Check your SPD and statement for loan and after-tax provisions before requesting a rollover.
Shift workers lose accounts more than anyone
Twelve-hour rotations do not pair well with benefits administration, and the result is predictable: clinicians hold more forgotten retirement accounts per capita than almost any profession we meet. The fix costs one evening — inventory everything, set every beneficiary, and give each balance a deliberate home. Your future self, three hospitals from now, will be glad the trail starts clean.
Always transfer directly. Choose the direct-transfer box on the distribution form, always. A cheque payable to you arrives net of the 20% withholding that IRC § 3405(c) commands, and undoing the damage means completing a 60-day rollover with the missing fifth supplied out of pocket.
Common questions
I worked at two MemorialCare hospitals. Could I have two accounts?
It happens — particularly where entities within a system historically ran separate plans, or where a rehire created a second enrollment. One call to HR with your service dates settles it, and the answer belongs in writing before you plan any rollover.
Is the hospital’s plan better than an IRA for a nurse mid-career?
It genuinely can be — institutional share classes and fiduciary-monitored menus are not nothing. The IRA earns its keep through breadth of choice and unified management across jobs. Which weighs more depends on your fees, balances and appetite for juggling accounts.
What happens on a review call with your firm?
You bring statements; we bring questions and a whiteboard. By the end you know each account’s costs, each option’s tradeoffs, and our recommendation — with our published fee as the only way we are ever compensated.
One evening, every account accounted for
Bring whatever statements you can find — we will reconstruct the rest and give each balance a deliberate destination.