Quick Q for a financial person, to stop the panic....

[Dsnygirl]

Short version - my DH left a company 11 yrs ago, and left his existing 401K in their care, as well. (I know, not wise... :()

Anyway - today he got a letter from John Hancock, the financial co managing the 401K, stating that the group contract with his company had been discontinued, and that the funds in his account had been "distributed according to the instructions given by his account's trustees". And the balance listed for this account was now $0.00 :faint:

Obviously, he tried to call immed, but had to leave a message... I feel fairly sure that a company can't just dissolve your account and distribute your funds elsewhere, and leave you with nothing... but he is panicked and I've tried to google the information, but with no luck. (And no one answering at John Hancock, either)

So -- anyone with any words of wisdom on this topic, to calm him before he hears from someone tomorrow?? :blush:

[VWL Mom]

Don't know i this will help but I found this on the John Hancock NY site.



Your opinion is important to us. We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Phone:
Call 1-800-395-1113 to speak to a client account representative. Please have your contract number and Social Security number handy. Our client account representatives are available to take your calls Monday to Friday, (excluding holidays) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (ET).

While they may no be able to answer specific questions regarding his account, they should be able to generalize.

Good luck

[AgentC]

Generally if the contract is dissolved, a check should be issued to all the participants less any fees that may be owed. I can't guarantee that is what will happen in his case, but it did happen to me several years ago.

I had left a small 401K with a prior company when I left. They went bankrupt about 3 years after I left. I was sent a check for my account and had the choice of cashing it and taking the tax penalty or depositing it into a roll over account.

I hope it works out for him.

[Dopey's Girl]

I work in 401(k) distributions, and generally speaking, we can't distribute accounts as cash without a participant request (form with signature) if it's over $1000. I believe that is a fairly standard industry practice.

Another possibility is that they rolled it over. My best guess is that the company set up a Safe Harbor Rollover for him at another institution. It simply means they were unable to contact him for some reason and rolled the funds into an Ira in his name.

When was the last time he had an account statement? They should come at least quarterly...

Feel free to PM me with questions if you have questions!

[Dsnygirl]

Thanks for all the help, tips and ideas!

Lynn, we will try to call his company and JH again tomorrow... not sure why they didn't pick up at JH, as it seems their hours were 'til 8pm... should have tried again! Wish I'd seen your post earlier!

Cindy, I'm guessing the difference for him is that his company didn't dissolve, JH chose to end the group contract... wish we HAD seen a check!! ;)

Meg, thanks for the info, it is what we are hoping/assuming happened, but he is still worried. He got a "regular statement" with his full balance listed literally 2 weeks before the statement that said the contract had been dissolved, funds had been distributed and his balance was now $0. Odd, if you ask me... no mention of an upcoming change.

I will mention what you said about a Safe Harbor Rollover to him so he can remember to ask tomorrow...

[Dopey's Girl]

Thanks for all the help, tips and ideas!

Meg, thanks for the info, it is what we are hoping/assuming happened, but he is still worried. He got a "regular statement" with his full balance listed literally 2 weeks before the statement that said the contract had been dissolved, funds had been distributed and his balance was now $0. Odd, if you ask me... no mention of an upcoming change.

I will mention what you said about a Safe Harbor Rollover to him so he can remember to ask tomorrow...

Generally when we dissolve contracts, save harbor ira's is where they go.

[Tink#64]

WOW! Gosh I hope that you all get an answer to this quickly! How scary! And something that's really on my mind as I'm chaning jobs in less than 2 weeks & have money in a 403(b) (a non profits version of a 401(k)). I've got to find out if I can roll my $'s into an IRA, I'm way too nervous to leave it where it is! I'm 10 years in & can't imagine going through the anxiety that you currently are with this!

Sending you some :pixie: & hoping that all goes well for you on this!

[Scar]

I dissolved a profit sharing plan for my old company once. I had to get releases signed by every participant that was still involved. One ex employee hadn't withdrawn his funds, and the broker would not release any of the funds until I got his release. He had moved and it took a lot of effort to find him but I finally did (our statements were annual and he had moved within the year.) Anyway, I don't know if 401k's are the same, but it sounds like more than one person screwed up. I doubt anyone "took" the money on purpose. That would be highly illegal.

It may take some work, but you should get it.

[SBETigg]

Blythe, I have no idea but I have been panicked for you since I read your post. I hope you've had some resolution on this or a better idea of what's going on. Thinking of you!

[Dsnygirl]

Thanks for all the additional input... my DH got ahold of everyone yesterday, and like Meg thought, it had been rolled over into a new account with a different investment company.

So, all's well & safe... :thanks: to everyone!! :)

[faline]

Glad it all worked out!

[Aurora]

Thanks for all the additional input... my DH got ahold of everyone yesterday, and like Meg thought, it had been rolled over into a new account with a different investment company.

So, all's well & safe... :thanks: to everyone!! :)

Make sure you get copies of all the paperwork on both accounts. I had problems several years ago when my 401(k) was taken over by another company, and neither claimed to have a record of it when I needed to file some tax-related paperwork. It worked out in the end, but it was a pain to track down and could have been avoided if I had done some legwork in the beginning.

[Dopey's Girl]

Thanks for all the additional input... my DH got ahold of everyone yesterday, and like Meg thought, it had been rolled over into a new account with a different investment company.

So, all's well & safe... :thanks: to everyone!! :)

yeah!!! I'm so glad that was it! Made 10 years at this job worth it! (it's not the most inspiring job on the planet!)

[SBETigg]

I'm relieved for you! I hate when things happen that give you that panicky feeling.

[BrerGnat]

Glad this turned out okay for you. Whew!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I'm glad everything worked out. I was going to tell you basically the same thing as Meg, but she had even more knowledge about it than I would have.