457(b) account upon retirement

[movingtobangalore]

We are US citizens planning to relocate to India in a few months. My wife works for the state government and has ~$100K in her deferred comp 457(b) account. The account offers only one Vanguard MF namely VPMAX, which has an expense ratio of 0.31%. My plan is to move that money into her Vanguard's traditional IRA and just put it in VTI.

My question is

1. Can I move 457(b) --> Trad IRA rollover
2. Is that a smart thing to do w.r.t tax implications for now & future?

Upon retirement I plan on slowly converting Trad IRA to ROTH IRA since our income would reduce.

Thanks

[gocurrycracker]

Yes, you can rollover a 457b into a Traditional IRA.
They are taxed the same.

A reason you may choose not to do this: you can make penalty-free withdrawals from a 457b before age 59.5 (still pay taxes.)

[movingtobangalore]

Thanks Jeremy for the advise. We are getting close to making a big LIFE move. I'd like to document our final few months. I'll try and keep entering our experiences here from now.