If DB Plan frozen mid-June, do plan participant credited a year of service

[AdKu]

If a calendar year DB Plan frozen mid June, do plan participant credited a year of service?

[david rigby]

What does the plan say?

Many (but not all) plans define a YOS as a plan year with 1000+ hours of service.

BTW, it's also possible to have a freeze amendment provide something more generous than what the plan would otherwise provide.

[My 2 cents]

Absent good information to the contrary, plan participants would normally be assumed to have completed 1,000 hours of service by mid-June. But much will come down to what the plan says and what the freeze amendment says. The freeze amendment certainly ought to provide at least as generous an accrual through the freeze date as the plan would have provided (although, depending on plan language, it would not be necessary, for example, to recognize prorata credit if the plan only provides prorata credit in the event that the participant terminated in a plan year - unless they already had terminated as of the freeze date - or for the year of plan termination - unless the plan is terminating coincident with the benefit freeze).