Termination of 403(B) Annuity or Early Withdrawal

[Guest clgray]

Hi:

Just found your forum and am hoping someone can assist. I have a retirement plan from a private university under the co. Tiaa-Cref. I left the university's employ in 1988. Although I was able to rollover my stock portion of this program to another vehicle, I have been trying to for years to get the annuity portion. TIAA-CREF will allow it but my previous employer's rules will not. I have even asked to close the account, realizing there would be penalties and was told I am not permitted to do that either! The only option I have is to roll 10 payments of equal amounts into a money market account once a year and then withdraw from that. I am spitting mad because these people are holding my money hostage!!! What are my rights under ERISA?

thanks, clgray

[Guest JohnMLee]

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best regards

John

[GBurns]

clgray,

What state are you in? What state were you employed in when these contributions were made?

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Have you actually received a hard copy of these alleged rules that the employer is referring to?

Did you make your request in writing and do you have the employer's response in writing?

Without these you will have a very difficult time resolving this.

[Guest clgray]

In Reply to GBurns:

I was employed in the state of Pennsylvania when I made the contributions and continued employeed in that state till present. I have requested an "explanantion" and written documentation of these rules from the universities HR Director via email...she is out of the office until tomorrow and I anticipate her reply then.

Thank you for your reply...will post my progress.

clgray

[GBurns]

I am hoping that someone has some old information on the protracted lawsuit that the American Association of University Professors (I think??) brought against CREF back in the 1980's that caused CREF to change their very restrictive practices. The Universities using CREF were all given a time frame in which to change their plan documents that reflected the CREF restrictions. This was supposed to have prevented things such as has happened to you. However, the CREF "clout" caused many universities to have not made sufficient changes and some probably are not in compliance with the Court Order, which might eventually be what helps you.

Does anyone have any info on the case or Court Order?

If you have access to U Penn or any large Law Library, you might want to ask the Librarian to help you find the case. I think that this Court Order etc will be of great help to you. I used it to help a few people at UM years ago in a very similar situation.