Incentive Package

[Guest swaid]

My brother voluntarily retired in January after 36+ years with his employer. Prior to making his (retirement) intentions known, he inquired about the possibility of an incentive package to encourage employees to retire early. The H.R. people said there were no plans to offer any such package to employees. In April, he learned that they have in fact offered such an incentive package to employees. Is it possible for him to still obtain this incentive package, since the H.R. people LIED to him about it??

[Guest Harry O]

You shouldn't assume that the HR people "lied" to your brother. Many of these early retirement incentive programs are concocted at higher levels than the HR rep your brother probably dealed with. There have been a number of cases on just this type of issue. The bottom line is that the former employee generally loses unless he can demonstrate that the early retirement plan was under serious consideration when he made his inquiry. This is a facts and circumstances determination and proving it can consume quite a bit of legal fees.

It wouldn't hurt to have your brother contact a lawyer (one that is knowledgable in ERISA / employee benefits litigation) but this is far from a slam dunk winner.