ERISA 403b Eligibility

[Earl]

TIAA document has option:

After completing ___ consecutive Months of Eligibility Service (no more than 12.)

How does this work?

Does employee have to work in each of 12 months to become eligible?

So if the EE works 5, takes 2 off and then works 5 more and actually works over 1,000 hours; EE is not eligible?

This employee would go in the denominator of the coverage fraction but not the numerator?

Plan Doc is no help that I can find. "Month of Eligibility Service", if not counting hours, is deemed to be 83 1/3. Didn't think that was a legal equivalency amount.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[Carol V. Calhoun]

Neither definition seems to reference the 1,000 hours requirement, and as you point out, it would be possible to get 1,000 hours of service in a year without meeting the plan's eligibility requirements. I would contact TIAA to ask why their document appears to be out of compliance with ERISA. Could they have believed that this was a non-ERISA plan (governmental or church plan)?

[Earl]

The document is titled ERISA 403(b) Plan for 501©(3) tax-exempt orgs.

They have a separate non-ERISA 403(b) Plan for Affiliated Church Organizations.

It has the same option and both, separately, have an option "After completing ____ Years of Eligibility Service with YOS defined as 1,000 hrs.

Thanks for your thoughts.