401k No Notice

Hello   I have just found out in the past few days that my 401k plan was transferred to another company and is now in the blackout period.  I had left the company 6 months ago but I am still a participant. I had planned to move it to an IRA. I also have more than a half million in the plan . The only way I found out is that another  former employee was trying to get into his account and was locked out. It looks like that the company’s 401k administrator did not notify and give notice to any past employees in the plan. I called my former employer’s HR person and was told they have all my contact info and I should have received an email in October. I had told her I did not receive anything and told her at least one other had not received any email or any other correspondence concerning the transferring our 401k plan to another company. While on the phone the owner of the company overheard our conversation and told the HR person that she will have to get back to me. Two minutes later I get an email from the company’s 401k administrator showing an October 26^th email giving the info of the 30 days notice and the black out period.   FYI - all the employees were removed from the email chain and confirming that I did not receive it at that time. It is now in the blackout period. I called the new  401k company  (Fidelity) and was told they could see I have zero balance but were having issues registering me to have a new account set up. They also said they could not give me any info since they are in the middle of the blackout period that started in late November. I made calls to two other past employees and were told they did not get notice either. I have calls into the old 401k company to see if I can find out what was my final balance when they transferred it over to fidelity. If I had known I certainly would not have allowed this to happen without changing things up. I know they still have not given any info to the past employees that also did not receive any notices also . I think they are concerned it will open up a can of worms. What recourse do I have if I lose money during this transition? What are my rights? 

While you might get some answers here, this clearly is a legal issue and we are not lawyers providing personal advice.  You need to talk to an ERISA attorney who can best help you if you decide it is worth pursuing.  You might find the costs to pursue are prohibitive since it is unlikely an attorney would take something like this on a contingency basis. Best of luck.

Larry ,thanks  so much for taking the time to respond . I also noticed that you're only 10 minutes away!    I guess i was looking to see if anyone has had this issue in the past. . Thanks again

I doubt the original e-mail (if it went out) showed everyone's e-mails.  usually, in a mass e-mail, companies send the email to one person in the company and blind copy everyone else, so as not to expose everyone's email addresses.  So, I wouldn't use that as proof that you didn't receive it.

Do you usually check your spam folder?  Or just delete everything automatically?  Many times, an e-mail that goes out with more than a couple recipients will automatically get flagged as spam, even if the sender is a trusted source.

It sounds like there was a screw up in the noticing.  It happens, and there is some potential liability, but my suggestion is to 1) stay on top of it, definitely try to find out when they open your Fidelity account, 2) make sure the investments are what you want, and if not, make changes...even if you are planning on taking the money out; if that is imminent, you might consider moving everything to a money market fund, 3) after the dust settles, figure out if you actually incurred losses as a result of the events.  Odds are decent that, with the recent market gyrations, if the money was sitting in cash during the blackout, they saved you some money on losses.  But maybe not, there are lots of ways to do a conversion.

Ultimately this boils down to whether you were financially harmed and as Larry notes, it is likely to be expensive to do anything about it.  Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks  .The first thing I did was check my spam folder. I contacted 4 past employees and 3 did not receive any notice( checked spam etc.). I have the original email they sent out and its something we would not have missed. I have been in contact with fidelity and was told i cant do anything until after the first of the year. Cant move anything at all.  As soon as it settles I will most likely put it in a IRA. It was put into a 2030 fund and i cant touch it. I talked with a current employee today and he said he could see his money and it was transferred already.and the fidelity rep said that happens sometimes.  Funny how no one cares when its not their money..  All I can do is hope the market goes up I guess..  

While not directly related to your question, if you left 6 months ago and intended to move to an IRA why didn't you do that 6 months ago when you left?

That said if they have proof they sent out the e-mail on 10/26/18 it's unlikely you'll be able to show you had damages.

I would suggest finding out when the blackout period ends and rolling your money to an IRA at that point.

But as Larry suggests if you feel you've been adversely harmed, contact an ERISA lawyer to determine if you have a claim against the Plan.

Since he is a terminated participant doesn't he have to give express written permission on what kind of notices and discloses he wants sent to him via email as well as provide the email address to send them to, or have the electronic disclosure rules been relaxed since then?  If this is true and he didn't provide the express written permission, does he have any recourse?

You might want to give the Dept. of Labor a call and see if they want to look into this situation since you believe that the company missed sending the blackout notice to a group of employees.  The Dept. of Labor has an online form you can fill in at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/ask-a-question/ask-ebsa or you can call them at 1-866-444-3272.

Since you mentioned that you live 20 minutes from Larry, I'm guessing that it means you may live in Massachusetts.  There is a non-profit in Massachusetts that you might want to call to see if they can help.  It is the Pension Action Center at the University of Massachusetts.  Their website is https://www.umb.edu/pensionaction

For 401_noob - It is 2520.104b-1(c)(2)(ii)(A) and (B) - 

"(ii) A participant, beneficiary or any other person entitled to documents under Title I of the Act or regulations issued thereunder (including, but not limited to, an “alternate payee” within the meaning of section 206(d)(3) of the Act and a “qualified beneficiary” within the meaning of section 607(3) of the Act) who -

(A) Except as provided in paragraph (c)(2)(ii) (B) of this section, has affirmatively consented, in electronic or non-electronic form, to receiving documents through electronic media and has not withdrawn such consent;

(B) In the case of documents to be furnished through the Internet or other electronic communication network, has affirmatively consented or confirmed consent electronically, in a manner that reasonably demonstrates the individual's ability to access information in the electronic form that will be used to provide the information that is the subject of the consent, and has provided an address for the receipt of electronically furnished documents;

(C) Prior to consenting, is provided, in electronic or non-electronic form, a clear and conspicuous statement indicating:

(1) The types of documents to which the consent would apply;

(2) That consent can be withdrawn at any time without charge;

(3) The procedures for withdrawing consent and for updating the participant's, beneficiary's or other individual's address for receipt of electronically furnished documents or other information;"

In the Preamble to the 2003 Final Rules on Blackout Notices, the Dept. of Labor said:

"Furnishing a notice to the last known address of a participant or beneficiary would be sufficient where the plan utilizes a method of delivery described in section 2520.104b-1 and the fiduciaries of the plan have taken reasonable steps to keep plan records up-to-date and to locate lost or missing participants."

- Friday, Jan. 24, 2003, 68 Fed. Reg. 3720, left column, 2nd paragraph, Final Rule to Notice of Blackout Periods to Participants and Beneficiaries, Civil Penalties and Conforming Technical Changes on Civil Penalties Under ERISA, Final Rules

Hi 

To clarify.

1  The company I worked for I was in a management role ( was there for about 15 years) and ran one of their offices. I was not terminated  or even considered a terminated participant.  I liked the people who ran my 401k so that is why I stayed with them. I did not roll it over at that time because i just turned 55 and i wanted to keep the option(The over 55 rule) if i wanted to draw on it without penalty. I planned on rolling it over but  6 months went really quick.   . I been talking with fidelity (3 different people) today and found out that today they can see the money in the account but for some reason i cant see it. I was told I might have to wait till January to do anything with it. The company never denied that they did not send me the notice email. They just sent me the notice from October 26th and said here you go. It looks like in the next few days i will be finding out a lot more. 

and thanks Suzanne for the info....

14 hours ago, tomres said:

I was not terminated  or even considered a terminated participant

Are you certain that you're eligible for a distribution? If you're under age 59-1/2 and not "terminated' then chances are your money is stuck in the Plan anyway.