retirement instruments??

[anabanana]

What is the name of your state? FL

This might seem reeeeallly lame, but a 401(k) is a bank account right? An interest-bearing, cash-holding savings account, right? You can't put STOCK in a 401(k), right?

And an Employee Stock Option Plan is just a tool for investment, not a retirement instrument, per se, right? I mean, you get VESTED in your options over time, but that is not to be confused with becoming VESTED, as in a pension plan, right?

I mean, I'm not saying that an ESOP couldn't be structured as PART of an employee pension plan, or an individual employee's pension planning, and somehow be incorporated therein and made a part thereof, but it's not BY DEFINITION a retirement instrument, and in no way can it be made a part of a 401(k), right?

 

[ALawyer]

A 401k is a tax qualified retirement plan typically set up by a company to help its employees save for retirement. A company may provide matching contributions as well.

The administrator of the 401k may be a bank, trust company, insurance company or brokerage firm or affiliate.

In terms of investment flexibility, you get just as much choice as the particular plan allows -- most 401k plans offer employees and retirees a choice of from several to dozens of investment alternatives, such as various mutual funds or separate accounts, plus some guaranteed or fixed dollar investments or shares of the company sponsoring the plan itself. In other cases the 401k may offer an opportunity to invest all or part of the funds in any stock or outside investment (even a private securities offering -- such as stock in a start-up company) the employee chooses, as if it were a brokerage account for an IRA.

I am not able to answer your question as it relates to ESOPs.

 

[DrewfromCA]

A 401k is NOT a bank account. There is no FDIC guarantee, nor is there necessarily any interest. It's value fluctuates depending on the underlying investments.
You CAN have stock in a 401k, and as for the ESOP, they typically are not part of a retirement plan per se, but that is a generality.

Do you have a specific question about your own accounts, or you just fishing for info? There are a few good websites out there with more info than I have given, so do a yahoo search and you will probably be able to get loads of info from the internet.

 

[anabanana]

My specific question has to do with identifying what makes up the balance of a 401k.

The party in question did not list the 401k in question on his bankruptcy filing, nor did he list stock or options or any other assets besides his homestead.

We knew better, but couldn't prove much. Somehow, though, the bankruptcy trustee was able to locate at least one account, this 401k. The trustee told the judge it has a balance of $107,000 in it. Now that it's been discovered, the Debtor is trying to say that's all stock from an ESOP. But since he didn't disclose any of that at filing, who knows? I don't know because the trustee isn't obligated to give the Creditors anything he digs up on the slimeball, and the only documentation I could lay hands on was an old ESOP statement, showing $185,000 in stock. The stock's lost some value, but not that much. So I wanna know where all that stock went, and whether that 401k really IS that same stock or if it's an other cache of cash we never knew about.

 

[teflon_jones]

Generally an ESOP is not associated with a 401K (but not always). There are complications with combining the two due to 401K contribution limits and the possible value of stock options in an ESOP. An ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan) is much more likely to be associated with a 401K because the stock is purchased at a fixed value and placed in the 401K, so any gain in the stock price doesn't affect the maximum contributions a person can make to their 401K. If you have the name of the company that he worked for, you may be able to find out what type of plan this is, and possibly how their plan works, maybe under the guise of looking into employment there, or another means. You should at the very least be able to call them and find out if they offer an ESOP and/or ESPP.