I am thinking of taking a 401k (don't work there anymore) and putting it into an IRA. I've heard you can have the 401k company do a trustee to trustee transfer (rollover), but that it takes awhile to get them to do it. I also heard that in order to make things happen faster, you can also have the 401k plan send you the proceeds in a check and you have 60 days to deposit it into the newly created IRA. Is that correct?

Also, I'm deciding which type IRA to start (Roth vs Traditional), so a few questions:
1. The inital amount you put in there to start the IRA is not subject to the annual contribution limits, right? In other words, the new IRA can be started with all the funds from the 401k and that can be more that the annual limit of (?) $5000,right?
2. With a traditional IRA, if you are subject to a contribution phaseout window due to income amount, can you still contribute, but NOT claim a deduction? Alternatively, can you contribute to the tradtional IRA, and then rollover the non-deductible amount to a Roth IRA?

Thanks,
Mike