Recartuck

Not a safe harbor plan. And you're right - 8% is too high. I did my calc with 4% which is how I got $10k. I'm in the process of collecting facts. Waiting until I hear back from company attorney before calling DOL. I've been trying to find documentation on policies around notification of eligibility but haven't found anything other than suggestions. Thanks for your answer.

Same issue: Almost 7 years ago I received an offer letter that had the sentence "You will not be eligible for benefits in this position." I am a part-timer and was told by the recruiter and my immediate manager that part-timers receive no benefits, including 401k. I agreed to the position and started at the company on 02-01-2010. Over the years at enrollment time I received benefits information emails along with all the other employees that included health and welfare enrollment, but no information on the 401k. In November of 2015 I happened to email the representative that sent the all-company benefits information to check if I was eligible for 401k and she replied that I was not. However, recently I found out that other part-time employees at the company are participating in 401k AND receiving company match (4%). The plan has no eligibility requirements other than being an employee for 90 days. Since there is no HR Dept at this small company, I asked the corporate attorney who handles everything. He said he would look into it - that was right before Thanksgiving. Last week he called me into his office and produced a letter was supposedly sent to my home on 10-20-2010 indicating my eligibility into the plan. I honestly do not recall receiving/seeing this letter and if I had I would have asked my manager if I was eligible seeing as though I was offered the position with no benefits. Now the attorney is claiming it was my fault I have not been participating in the plan as the company provided information (once over the course of 6 years) on how to enroll (note that the letter was dated 5 months after what should have been the eligibility date). Do I have a "case" here? Should I be personally culpable (as corporate attorney stated I was)? or is the company at fault? I'm not sure how much money is at stake here (I would have contributed the max amount to the plan as I had for 15 years at my previous company) as the corporate attorney refuses to share the NHCE ADP, however I'm thinking at least $10k if the ADP is 8% and including the 4% match for all those years. I'm not sure what to do at this point - pursue my claim or chalk it up to a lesson learned. What do you think? Thank you for any advice you can provide.