Don't 'leave money behind' when you exit your job, says advisor—how to get what you're owed

Had Roger Ma not happened to check an old account, he may never have noticed that he and his wife were missing cash that was rightfully theirs.

In March, a couple of months after his wife left her job at Amazon, Ma, a certified financial planner in Washington, D.C., says he randomly logged into her old workplace 401(k) account. They'd rolled the account over to an individual retirement account in February, and yet, there was a pile of money sitting in it.

It turned out, her employer's matching contribution had hit two months after her last day.

They aren't the first family to (almost) leave money behind when leaving a job. As of July 2025, there were 31.9 million left-behind or forgotten 401(k) accounts, worth approximately $2.1 trillion, according to retirement account rollover firm Capitalize.

If you've recently left a job — either voluntarily or as the result of a layoff — your workplace retirement account is just one of the things worth double-checking, Ma wrote in a recent LinkedIn post: "Otherwise, you may end up leaving money behind without realizing it."

Here are three potential hiding places for your money that are worth discussing with HR before you leave.

If you leave your job and take no action on your workplace retirement account, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), one of three things can happen. If you have more than $7,000 in the account, your funds will generally stay in your old employer's plan (some plans may still operate under the previous $5,000 threshold). That may be something you want if, for instance, your plan came with good, low-fee investment options, experts say.

But it can also lead to a scenario where a chunk of your money becomes out-of-sight, out-of-mind, says Ma.

If you have less than $7,000 in the account, your company has the option to roll the funds into an IRA in your name, which could similarly get lost in the wash, Ma says. And if you have less than $1,000 invested, your firm could cut you a check for the amount, which, if not reinvested into a similar retirement account within 60 days, is considered taxable income and could be subject to early withdrawal penalties.

Generally, Ma says, your best move is to be proactive by rolling any workplace funds into an IRA at your preferred brokerage, so you don't forget about them.

"The sooner that you can do it after leaving the job, the better, because there's going to be some indifference, or life just happens, and you're just not gonna do it," he says.

You may not be the only one putting money in your workplace plan. Many employers offer to match an employee's contributions up to a percentage of their salary. But the money doesn't start coming in from Day One. Instead, these funds generally come with a vesting schedule, which means if you leave the firm before a certain amount of time, you may have to forfeit some or all of the money the employer put in.

"With the 401(k) match, the thing to know [if you're leaving your job] is the vesting schedule and whether you're fully or partially vested," Ma says.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, companies can generally offer one of two models:

1. Three-year cliff: Employees receive 100% of the company match once they've worked at the firm for three years. Leave the firm before that and you'll get 0% of what your company contributed.

2. Six-year graded: You get 100% of your match after six years of service. Until then, vesting is partial. You may get 0% after one year, 20% after two, 40% after three and so on.

When leaving, Ma suggests discussing your vesting schedule with your HR representative, along with the timing of matching contributions. While some companies may contribute with every paycheck, others may operate on a more intermittent basis, and may contribute your match after you've left your position, he says.

If you discover that your firm made, or plans to make, a contribution after your departure, make plans to roll the money into an IRA, Ma says.

Depending on your employer and the kind of insurance you have, you may have access to a flexible spending account, which generally allows you to divert money into an account you can use to pay for out-of-pocket medical, dental and vision expenses for you and your dependents. Contributions are exempt from federal income tax.

You typically decide on your annual contribution during the previous year's open enrollment, and even though you put money toward the account with each paycheck, your entire election is yours to spend on Jan. 1.

That means, should you spend the entire balance before you depart, in short, "you win as an employee," says Sara Taylor, senior director of employee spending accounts at Willis Towers Watson. "You can use the full annual amount, regardless of if you're terminated or don't make contributions equal to that amount."

Even if you're laid off, you may have time to spend the money in your account, Taylor says. Some employers will allow you to incur FSA-eligible expenses until your last day of employment, while others may give you until the end of the month.

The same rules don't apply to dependent care FSAs, however, which cover expenses for children under 13 or elderly dependents. These are funded incrementally through payroll contributions, meaning you can't spend what you haven't put in, says Taylor. Some employers will allow you to incur expenses up to your final day, while others may let you go to the end of the calendar year.

For either type of account, funds generally follow "use-it-or-lose it" rules. Any money you haven't spent in the account by your company's deadline reverts to the firm.

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