Portable benefits

Portable benefits. Benefits or accumulated assets that you can take with you when you leave your employer or switch jobs are described as portable.

For instance, if you contribute to a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or other defined contribution plan at your current job, you can roll over your assets to an individual retirement account (IRA) or to a new employer's plan if the plan accepts rollovers.

In contrast, credits accumulated toward benefits from a pension -- otherwise known as a defined benefit plan -- usually aren't portable.

Insurance benefits under an employer sponsored group health plan may also be portable as the result of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you have had group coverage and move to a new employer who offers health insurance, your new group health plan can't impose exclusions for preexisting conditions.

HIPAA may also give you a right to purchase individual coverage if you are not eligible for group health plan coverage and have exhausted the 18-month extension of your previous coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) or similar coverage.

Other job benefits, such as health savings accounts (HSAs), are also be portable, but flexible spending plans (FSAs) are not.