What happens to gains or losses on unvested retirement money when I leave my job?
If I leave my job before becoming vested, I understand that the company takes back the unvested money. But what if there is less money in the fund than what they have put in due to bad investments? Or what happens if I had made a lot of money due to good investments? Can they take back more than they put in if I make earning off of their money? Or do I owe them money if there is less than what they have put in due to losses?
August 13th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Any “unvested” money was never really there. It’s just money on the books they WOULD have given you if you’d stayed. It’s in the same place all the money is that would have funded your ten percent pay raise, had you got one, but didn’t…
August 13th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
The companies contribution to your 401k is kept separate from your employee contributions. The earnings and losses are for each are kept separate also. So any gain or loss attributable to the company contribution stays with the company if you have a zero vesting percentage
August 13th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
you lose the amount of money they put in plus any profits from that money or loses…it is as though the money was never there to begin with
August 13th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
just think of it as a dream — when you wake up it is gone — if it made money it was a good dream — if it lost it was a bad dream!!!