Search the Community

We have a non-safe harbor 401k. Employer match is discretionary. We want to change the match formula this year. My questions are: 1) Are we required to notify the employees? 2) Is there a deadline for notifying employees? For example, the notice must be sent 30 days before beginning of the year, 1/1/2015. 3) Can we change the formula now effective the beginning of the year, 1/1/2015? Thanks for your help.

Hi, I'm new to this forum, but would much appreciate any advice you might have regarding my situation. I recently received a letter from my employer and their 401k administrator stating that they found a mistake calculating my eligilibity for a company match contribution back in 2008. They have reviewed their records and determined that I should have been eligible for a company match back in 2008 but due to a mistake with calculating my Program Eligibility Date, I was not eligible for a match until 2009. So I missed out on the entire company match for 2008, which is on the order of $6K. According to the letter, they have consulted with the IRS and have deposited the $6K into my 401K using the investment elections I had on file back in 2008 and "all corrective contributions received applicable investment experience which was calculated and added to your account in accordance with the direction by the IRS." Does this "investment experience" refer to investment gains since 2008? I'm not sure what "investment experience" means in this context...but from what I can tell, the $6K does not include any investment gains since it's consistent with my yearly % match based off my salary. Back in 2008, I distinctly remember asking my manager if I would be eligilble for the 401k match and him saying he would investigate (probably asking HR) and finding out that I was "not eligible". While I am glad that this mistake was found (better late than never), I'm concerned about the lost investment gains that I would have accrued had this match been deposited back in 2008. My investments have probably gone up by at least 50% since that time due to the stock market increases since the 2008 market bottom, thus $6K in 2008 would be at least $9K now. My question for the experts on this forum is how to best handle this situation. According to my 401k adimistrator there is an appeals process that I can follow which involves my writing a letter to request the appeals dept to review my case. I need to explain my situation and suggest a desired outcome. I know next to nothing about the laws and rules that govern 401k's or how they handle late match contributions like my case. Assuming I write this appeal letter, what outcome should I request? Can I ask for the lost earnings that would have accrued if my match had been deposited on time? How does one even calculate such earnings since it would require a detailed knowledge of my investments back in 2008 and look at stock/fund closing prices for each pay period in 2008. One final point is that I doubt I am the only employee who is affected by this mistake, so while other employees might not write an appeals letter, any revised decision on my case might force equal treatment for the other similar cases. Thanks for any advice on how to best handle this!