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You're quite welcome, TaxLawyer1978. A good year, btw.

Change your "presumably as of date Y" to "as of date Y," and you're not changing the time of payment, just the executive's vesting. That should be OK under 409A.

This is a plan document question. Read very carefully the provision that talks about payments due to retirement. It most likely says something to the effect if the person terminates due to retirement they get paid one way. There is then a provision that says if a person terminates for a reason other then death, disability, or retirement they are paid another way. If it says what I suspect it says then the question is simple, "did this person terminate due to retirement?". If so, then that provisions applied. If not, then that provision doesn't apply and the regular termination provisions apply. Unless you have one of those rare documents that says to account for what happens after the person terminates then all that matters is what was the person's status at the time of termination. But once again THE DOCUMENT will answer this question CLEARLY. Just read it carefully and think about what it is saying.

Hire an actuary.