This particular Cash balance Plan excludes non-owner HCEs, and has dual entry. Let's say an employee is an HCE and meets the eligibility requirements on 6/1/2009. Normally they would enter on 7/1/2009 (next entry date), however they are NOT an owner, so thus excluded from plan participation. However, they become an owner on 9/1/2009. Would they then become a participant on 9/1/2009, or would they become a participant on 1/1/2010? The plan document isnt specific on this situation, and it seems like it could go either way. Thoughts?

If the employee has already met the statutory entry date requirements of IRC sec. 410(a)(4), then employee enters the plan immediately, and does not have to wait till the next scheduled entry date.

Probably correct, but it depends on the document language. You could define eligibility based on the next entry date after a person changes employment status.

Wouldn't that effectively be requiring more than a year of service to participate? I don't recall ever seeing a document that didn't have the provision PensionPro describes.

The EOB says that if an employee is excluded for reasons other than age and service, when the other conditions are satisfied, he must enter the plan by the later of 1) the statutory entry date or 2) the date the employee satisifies the plan's other eligibility requirements. It then says that if 2) applies, the employee must enter no later than that date, even if it is not a regular entry date. Unfortunately, it doesn't give a cite. In the online version, it is in Chapter 2, Section IV, Part F.2