Entry date on plan effective date

Plan Effective Date: 10/01/2019 (age & service- waiver who employed on or before effective date)

Mr. B’s hire date 05/04/2019 and terminated on 09/21/2019; Rehire on 07/19/2020

What will be the Mr B’s entry date? Is he eligible to get entry on rehire date or service count will start from Rehire date?
 

 Thanks for your insights!

Rehire date. 

Does the waiver of age and service really say on "or before"?  Or does it say anyone working on the Effective Date enters on the Effective Date?

You can't ever ignore service before the Effective Date so to me the answer here hangs on the exact wording of the waiver.  

If they really wrote people employed on or before the Effective Date they were sloppy in writing the document.   If they meant to write "or before" and didn't think of rehires they were still sloppy.

I would think about getting the attorney who wrote this document (if there was one or the person who wrote it) to opine on this. 

Once you set precedent I would document so the plan is consistent going forward.   I would also get the client to sign off as Plan Administrator to agree. 

However, if it really has the "or before" language in place I would tend to agree with Riley- or before means or before.  

none of the above

If it says "on" (not "on or before" which I doubt) I think you count service from the original hire date.  Assuming it is one year eligibility, he won't have a YOS as of 5/4/2020, and assuming the measuring period switches to the calendar year, then he won't have a year of service for 2020.  Presumably he would have a YOS in 2021 and become eligible 1/1/2022. Obviously making some assumptions.

3 hours ago, Bird said:

none of the above

If it says "on" (not "on or before" which I doubt) I think you count service from the original hire date.  Assuming it is one year eligibility, he won't have a YOS as of 5/4/2020, and assuming the measuring period switches to the calendar year, then he won't have a year of service for 2020.  Presumably he would have a YOS in 2021 and become eligible 1/1/2022. Obviously making some assumptions.

 

I agree with this. 

Which is why I spent so much time asking if it really says "on or before".  

To be very clear.  If it doesn't say on or before it is "no".

If it does say on or before I don't see how it can't anything but a "yes" and the person who wrote that document ought to be ashamed of themselves.  

1 hour ago, steve45 said:

 

As expected, it does not say on or before.

Yup no on or before.   It clearly says you ignore the age/service requirements if they are employed on Effective Date.

So the general rule of you must look to all service when deciding if the age/service requirements have been met.  So Bird is right.  If we assume the plan has 1 year service requirement it doesn't look like this person enters.

So now to answer the original question you need to apply any age/service requirement looking to all service, including service before the Effective Date, with the employer and ignore the exception waiving those requirement as he was not employed on the Effective Date.  This is no different than any other rehire.   Just decide if the prior service met the age/service requirements or not.   Most documents, might have to look to the Base Document, should spell out when a rehire enters the plan. 

Thank you all for your valuable suggestion.