My wife has 401k accounts at 3 different institutions from her current employer due to us moving to options with lower and then again lower fees and more flexibility. Can you transfer a 401k from one institution to another while still employed with the same employer? If she moved to a different job, we would rollover all of them into an IRA at Vanguard, but the available options while employed with the same employer are less clear to me. If it matters she works for a school system and is a Federal Employee. She is now also contributing to a 457 as well as a 401k. Also, I'm not positive if the accounts are 403b or 401ks, nor do I know if that affects the rules on transferring the money.
So my questions are: it allowable to transfer a 401k to Vanguard? If so, would that be a conversion to a IRA or would it stay a 401k? Is it allowable to transfer the 401k to the institution we are happy with (still higher fees than vanguard) but much better than the institutions they are with now (Capital One and Franklin Templeton). If so, would that be transferring it as a 401k or would that be as a conversion to a IRA?
Any help would be appreciated.