So my husband left his employer at the end of last summer to do his graduate program's internship. He got an internship with another part of the same organization where he'd worked, an unpaid internship, so he's been getting all of the internal updates on the changes to the 401k plan--basically, the employer moved 401k providers to save some money. We got the updated plan documents, and his funds have been transferred from the S&P index fund with the old provider to another S&P index fund (Vanguard 500 Index Admiral, looks like maybe an annual fee of $20 plus .05% which is the lowest fee of all the fund options, not surprisingly). The possibility exists that he could once again be employed with this agency, and would keep adding to his 401k--or he may not--so we could just wait until after he graduates and is job-hunting to make any decisions, too. So, my questions:
1) Since he's no longer an employee, and he's fully vested, we could just roll this into an IRA for him--should we? Or not?
2) What would be the advantages of a rollover (I am thinking accessing money would be easier, but not sure)? We have accounts with both Vanguard and Fidelity, so a rollover would be easy.
3) Are "Admiral" shares of a stock really 'better' than regular investor shares?
Any other advice/wisdom you can share.
For other background info., his 401k is a good chunk of our retirement savings (let's say 20%) and we are looking at retirement in 12-15 years, possibly sooner, around ages 45-50. DH may or may not continue working longer than me, since he's starting this new career at age 34.