All, What is the consensus as to whether we are eligible for 401K matching, if we choose not to sign the separation agreement ?
8 replies (most recent on top)
not completely true. some people do get the 401k match based on their age, years of service. Most do not though.
No match unless your are “retired”. Must be employed by 12/15 of any given year to get 410k match. Can you say screwed again by IBM?
from my understanding, the employee has to complete the year to get the match for that year so I don't think you will get a match for 2020. I suggest you call HR and ask instead of guessing and share the answer with people here.
For those who are regular employees with no retirement options there is no 401k match unless you are employed as of December 15th. Sort of the same thing as you get x number vacation days per year, that aren't officially tracked, but technically accrue each month. So you get cheated out of that $ as well if you aren't employed the whole year.
Just wanted to add to my last post (about my own experience with the match from a few years ago) - that is how it was then. I have no idea if they changed it since - who knows with IBM - maybe you have to be 100 years old and have 75 years of service by now! ;-)
Responding to "The only thing I have seen HR continually say regarding the 401k match question is see
question 27 in the FAQs in your package.. maybe you can share here what 27 states."
You should have the information package if you were affected by the RA. If you were not affected by the RA, why they heck are you on this forum ?
Having been through this before, the answer is - it depends.
If you are over 55 and have 20 years at IBM (they don't count the time at acquired companies) - you get the match for the portion you've contributed this year. If you are one, but not the other, you get nothing (IBM is pretty good at coming up with these disqualifications).
The other tier, which I cannot remember completely was if you are over 65 (?) and have a lesser number of IBM years than above, you also get it.
So, for some folks they will get it, and some folks won't. It's an EXTREMELY petty thing on IBM's part to not even give you the partial match for 6 months, when they are sending you out into the unemployment line. It's downright devious. But, that's IBM.
The only thing I have seen HR continually say regarding the 401k match question is see
question 27 in the FAQs in your package.. maybe you can share here what 27 states.