A plan that suspends benefit payments must advise you of its procedures for requesting an advance determination of whether a particular type of reemployment would result in a suspension of benefit payments. If you are a retiree and are considering taking a job, you may wish to write to the administrator of your plan to ask if your benefit payments would be suspended.

What is vesting and how does it work?

Vesting refers to the amount of time you must work before earning a nonforfeitable right to your accrued benefit. When you are fully "vested," your accrued benefit will be yours, even if you leave the company before reaching retirement age. Generally, if you are employed when you reach your plan's "normal" retirement age (usually 65), you will be fully vested. You also must be permitted to earn a vested right to your accrued benefit through service as described below.

You are always entitled to 100 percent vesting in your own contributions and salary reduction contributions and their investment earnings. However, if your employer contributes to your accrued benefit (as most do), you may be required to complete a certain number of years of service with the employer before the employer portion of your accrued benefit becomes vested. Thus, if you terminate employment before working for a long enough period with your employer, you may forfeit all or part of your accrued benefit provided by your employer.

ERISA sets these standards as a minimum for counting vesting service. Plans may provide a different standard, as long it is more generous than these minimums. Check your summary plan description for a description of your employer's vesting schedule.

Prior to 2002, the vesting scheduled your employer used must have been at least as generous as one of the two following schedules.