Can I rollover my 401k and keep the mutual funds that I am invested in?

I want to roll my 401k over into a traditional, and eventually into a roth (I am going back to school and will do the roth rollover during a year where my income is very small). The problem is that I am in two really good funds that are closed to new investments; thus I want to roll over AND stay in those funds.

If you open an IRA with a brokerage, they will probably accept 'in kind' contributions as well as cash. The problem would be, MOST 401(k) plans will only distribute CASH. If that is the case for your plan, you can only roll over cash and then convert to other investments.

Even if your plan will distribute shares, the closed funds may not allow the shares to be transferred from the 401(k) to the IRA.

absolutely, in most cases anyway. just open your new IRA or if you have an existing IRA just initiate the transfer of accounts. Dont liquidate the funds within the 401K

When you roll over a 401(k) into an IRA, the existing fund shares in the old plan are sold by the custodian and cash is given to the new (IRA) custodian. So unless that new custodian has a way to open new accounts in those closed funds, you may be out of luck.

Engineer is correct, when you "roll over" a 401(k), it is CASH that moves from the 401(k) account to the IRA.

If the funds are closed to new investors, and you really like them, you can probably just leave them there. There is nothing to stop you starting over in a new job.