Hey, welcome to the site. I think your first step here is ensure that your wife CAN actually rollover her assets from her retirement account into an IRA. Teachers frequently have 403B plans that have similar rules to a 401K, which means that she may not be able to rollover assets until she reaches the age of 59.5 or terminates employment.
Next, ask yourself why you want to roll the account over. Different accounts have different features. An IRA isn't necessarily the best place for her money(although it CAN be in many cases). Her employer account might have some services or investment options that you can't get elsewhere. Some employer sponsored plans also provide additional protection from creditors, though this isn't a major consideration for most people.
I think there are two main reasons people might want to get out of their employer plan and into an IRA; fees and investment options. Some employer plans will light you up with fees. They could be fees for someone to administer the plan, or some sort of finance adviser who helps them choose what funds to make available. Plus maybe a service fee. The investment options themselves might have fees, like front and back end loads and 12b-1 fees. So far as funds go, some employers only offer a handful of funds. So say your wife is interested in investing in Japan for some reason, her plan might not offer a fund that gives her that option. When you pick an IRA custodian, I'd suggest you consider those exact things; fees and investment options. Big fund companies like Vanguard, Fidelity, and T Rowe Price typically offer IRAs with a minimal service fee like under $50 annually. They frequently even waive that fee based on things like your balance. Look at the funds that the company offers to make sure they have a selection that works for you. I'd also consider being careful opening an IRA through a company like Edward Jones or Raymond James that don't offer the funds themselves. That means that you'll probably have to pay a fee to them and they frequently deal with fund companies that have loaded(fee) funds. I'm not saying it couldn't work out, I'm just saying your investments would have to do pretty well to cancel out the cost of the fees. Hope this helped.
