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Employer took Safe Harbor deductions from my check but I did not have a 401K

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What is the name of your state? California. I worked for a company headquarter in Michigan but i lived and worked in California. On my paystubs I see a "Safe Harbor" deduction each paycheck (3% of my gross), but I never received any information for signing up for a 401K, or even told of the deduction. The employer laid me off - what is the status of that money? Am I able to get it back? What do I do? How do I roll it over or access it without a 401K account?
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
Did you look carefully at the paystub? There are three sorts of safe harbor plans and the 3% amount you mention sounds very much like the "non-elective version of the plan. This means that the 3% is paid BY THE EMPLOYER. It likely shows up as an additional amount over your pay that is immediately excluded from taxability. You don't get the option to not consent to this.

The good news is that unlike employer matches in other plans, these vest immediately. So the money in the plan at your termination is yours to keep in either that 401k plan or rollover into various IRA options.
 
Did you look carefully at the paystub? There are three sorts of safe harbor plans and the 3% amount you mention sounds very much like the "non-elective version of the plan. This means that the 3% is paid BY THE EMPLOYER. It likely shows up as an additional amount over your pay that is immediately excluded from taxability. You don't get the option to not consent to this.

The good news is that unlike employer matches in other plans, these vest immediately. So the money in the plan at your termination is yours to keep in either that 401k plan or rollover into various IRA options.
Yes, the paystub shows: DEDUCTION - SH Match and then the amount being deducted. But if I never set up a plan, so where is the money going?
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
There is such a thing as an auto-enrollment. You have x amount of time to say that you DON'T want to participate in the plan and if you haven't done so by the indicated date you are automatically enrolled. It's 60 days from date of hire/initial date of eligibility where I work.

If the money was deducted from your paycheck, then it is automatically vested and you will get it eventually.
 

quincy

Senior Member
As in "It's HIPAA not HIPPA."
Both "HIPPA" and "401k" can be (gently) corrected when used (and I almost always make note of the difference between libel and slander) but I do not see these corrections as being any different than grammar or spelling corrections.

If what a poster is writing is understood, that is (to me) more important than how what is written is written.
 

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