after-tax contributions and rollovers

Apologies, I want to correct a mistake I made in a previous post about after-tax contributions in 403b, 401k pension plans, etc. For tax purposes, if you roll these accounts over into an IRA, the after-tax contributions do not 'lose' their characterization as after-tax.  They remain as after-tax contributions. When you take the distributions from the IRA, you then have to file Form 8606 accounting for the pre-tax and after-tax portions. If  the after tax contributions are minimal and you don't want to take on these reporting requirements, I believe there is a way to distribute the after tax contributions in the original plans before you roll these over

I got mixed up with what the pension company does (as opposed to tax requirements) - it's not required to keep a record of the after-tax contributions once the rollover to the IRA occurs so you 'lose' them in terms of their record keeping.

When I rolled over my 401k to an IRA I was asked if I wanted to take out my after tax contributions. I would have had to pay the 10% penalty so i didn't do it. However, the amount wasn't that large and I now wish I had done it to make future distributions a bit simpler.