Given the turmoil this week in the stock market -- and the job market -- workers and retirees are peppering employers and investment advisers with questions about their nest eggs.

"If somebody is totally panicked, that's when I try to reach out and grab their forearm and say, 'This is not a good time to make huge moves,' " says Gary Cotter, a certified financial planner in Sun City Center, Fla. Yet there are some strategic tweaks that investors could make now, he adds.

Here are some specific questions and answers to consider in the days and weeks ahead:

Q: If I lose my job, what should I do with my 401(k)?

A: Many people move their savings from a 401(k) to an individual retirement account to have more control over their money and to have access to a larger number of investments.

But there are some situations in which it makes sense to stick with the 401(k). For example, will you need to make withdrawals from your retirement savings soon? There's a 10% penalty for withdrawals from an IRA before you turn 59½ years old. But if you are at least 55 in the year when you leave your job, there are no penalties for 401(k) withdrawals, says Ed Slott, an IRA consultant in Rockville Centre, N.Y. (Of course, you will owe income tax on any withdrawals.)

If you decide to move your assets to an IRA, insist on a direct rollover straight from your 401(k) to the new IRA, Mr. Slott says, also called a "trustee-to-trustee transfer." If you let your employer write out a check to you, the employer will withhold 20% of your savings, possibly subjecting you to additional taxes and penalties.

You might also consider moving your savings directly to a Roth IRA, particularly if your account value has been battered in recent months. You would have to pay taxes up front. Going forward, though, most withdrawals would be tax-free, he says. And there's no mandatory distribution schedule, as there is with traditional IRAs.

Q: What if I hold company stock in my retirement plan?

A: You may want to withdraw those shares instead of rolling them into an IRA with the rest of your assets. You have to pay income tax on the original purchase price, or "cost basis," of the shares. But any increase in the price of your company stock from the time you acquired it until the distribution -- called the stock's net unrealized appreciation, or NUA -- would be subject only to long-term capital-gains tax, which has a maximum 15% rate.

By contrast, if you roll your company stock into an IRA, all withdrawals from that account are taxed at ordinary income rates of up to 35%. Leaving your company is one of the triggering events that lets you take advantage of this tax strategy.

Of course, the bigger the increase in the value of your stock, the more valuable the strategy becomes. Mark Cortazzo, a certified financial planner in Parsippany, N.J., is working with a retiree from Anheuser-Busch Cos. who is using the strategy to lower the tax bill on his highly appreciated company stock before its sale to InBev NV is completed. "It's the difference between saying, 'Sell the stock and send me the check,' or 'Send me the stock and I'll sell it,' " he says.

The strategy can save you even more in taxes if you can balance a gain from highly appreciated company stock against losses in other investments in taxable accounts, says Mr. Cortazzo. Note: NUA mechanics can be very complicated; be sure to consult an adviser experienced in this area.

Q: Is my variable annuity safe?

A: Many older adults in recent years have bought variable annuities to supplement their workplace savings plans. The key here is the type of "sub-account" in which your underlying assets are invested. Some investors, fearful of stock-market declines, have invested their variable-annuity assets in "fixed accounts," which are assets of the insurance company. So if the insurer becomes insolvent, you would have to get in line with other creditors to get your money, Mr. Cortazzo says. However, if your sub-account is invested in a short-term bond fund or money-market account, you're much better off because the assets are your own. In short: "Get out of the fixed account and into the money market," he says.

Q: What happens to my variable annuity's guaranteed-income benefit if the insurer has capital problems?

A: It's only as good as the balance sheet of the insurance company making the guarantee. You're probably safe: The guarantee is an obligation of the insurer, but insurers set up reserves to pay those guarantees, Mr. Cortazzo says. "You're very senior where you stand in line for protection."

In the worst-case scenario, a retiree invests, say, $100,000 in such an annuity, the account's value falls to $75,000, and the insurer becomes insolvent. "The benefit is gone, and you only have $75,000 to re-invest," says Mr. Cotter, the financial planner.

Still, what's more likely to happen is that the weaker insurers will be bought by stronger ones, he says. "My inbox is flooded with emails from the insurance companies we deal with, telling us how solvent they are."

Q: If an insurer gets into trouble, what happens with the payments it makes on immediate fixed annuities?

A: This is the most straightforward case: If an insurer's reserves wouldn't cover the payments, and the insurer wasn't acquired by another company that would take them over, state insurance funds typically would kick in to cover at least part of the lost investments.