Company bought/401k terminated

[jughead]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

November 2004: Company was bought by another michigan company
(not related, my position was eliminated)

Was advised to fillout a 401k rollover form asap. I did this and even opened a Schwab rollover.

December -- didn't hear anything

2/1/05: Heard from one of the ex-owners that she was dealing with lawyers on how to shut the old 401k down and would be sending letters out.

As of 2/21/05: Haven't heard anything official. I've heard that the current employees have received an email detailing the fact that the new owner will not assume the 401k and it is to be shut-down by the old owners. We'll have to do a roll-over once the plan is legally terminated. Everyone should expect more info later....

What do I do? Options?

 

[cbg]

You can try giving HR a call for an update. But be aware that it can take months to finish closing a 401k plan, so if your concern is that you're being left out of the loop it's probably misplaced. I'm sure it seems like you've been waiting forever to hear something - it would me - but from November to February really isn't out of line when it's a question of closing the entire 401k instead of just rolling over your specific account.

 

[jughead]

ok

Thanks for the reply.

Is it normal to shutdown a plan -vs- just doing an automatic rollover? Seems like my wife's experiences with a few banks during mergers were painless and automatic. Not like this.

 

[cbg]

In the case of a sale, as opposed to a merger, yes, a shut down is not uncommon. You WILL get the opportunity to roll your funds over to another 401k or IRA plan, but there is typically a blackout period while the incredibly complex regulations about a shut down are followed.