What happens when a plan is terminated?
Federal law provides some measures to protect employees who participated in plans that are terminated, both defined benefit and defined contribution. When a plan is terminated, the current employees must become 100 percent vested in their accrued benefits. This means you have a right to all the benefits that you have earned at the time of the plan termination, even benefits in which you were not vested and would have lost if you had left the employer. If there is a partial termination of a plan, for example, if your employer closes a particular plant or division that results in the end of employment of a substantial percentage of plan participants, the affected employees must be immediately 100 percent vested to the extent the plan is funded.
