credit service after termination? (strange question)

[WCC]

I have never been asked this before and don't believe there is a way to do it, but I thought I would ask to see what you think.

Companies A and B are not related. Owners of companies A and B are best friends and work together on many projects. Both have a 401k with a match and a 5 year graded vesting schedule.

Employee works for Company A for 3 years. Both company A and B agree that this employee would be better off working for company B. Employee terminates from A and goes to work for B. Owners don't want employee to forfeit match from company A.

Question: is there a way to credit service with an unrelated company after termination? I know how the predecessor service rules work prior to current employment, but what about in reverse order? I have never seen this and am guessing it is not possible. Our document does not have the option to write this in, but is it even possible using another document?

Any other ideas? Could we fully vest one non HCE via amendment? (there are a handful of other non HCE's who would not be impacted)

Thank you in advance

[david rigby]

Amend plan A to give 100% vesting to this non-HCE?

Amend plan B to waive any participation requirement for this non-HCE?

Would it be useful if both A and B adopt the same plan?

[WCC]

Amend plan A to give 100% vesting to this non-HCE?

Amend plan B to waive any participation requirement for this non-HCE?

Would it be useful if both A and B adopt the same plan?

we looked at merging the plans, but for other reasons we felt it was best to keep them separate.

Thank you

[Kevin C]

Look in the document for provisions allowing a transfer of assets. If it is there, it should let you transfer this participant's entire balance from Plan A to Plan B. Our VS document allows this type of transfer if Trustees of both plans agree to the transfer. If the plans have different provisions, there may be some features of the transferred funds that have to be maintained after the transfer.

Giving service credit for service with an unrelated entity can be done. Any pre-approved document should have that as an option.