How Does Eligibility Work? – Vestwell Help Center

Eligibility is the set of rules, usually a combination of age and service with your company, that determines which employees can participate in the plan when they can enroll, and who is excluded.

We highly recommend keeping your eligibility rules simple and reporting all employees on payroll files each and every pay period.

You can view your employee eligibility through your employer portal, in the “Employees” tab under the “Status” column.

Exclusions

Generally, retirement benefits must be offered to all common-law employees who meet the plan's eligibility requirements.

We exclude three classifications of employees by default. Unless directed otherwise by payroll files submitted by you or your payroll company, the following types of employees will not be eligible to participate in the plan:

• Union Employees: Included in a unit of employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement, if retirement benefits were the subject of good faith bargaining, and if the collective bargaining agreement does not provide for participation in this Plan.
• Nonresident Alien: A non-citizen who received no U.S.-based earned income. This exclusion means that any nonresident, non-citizen, or resident non-citizen, may be eligible for the plan if receiving US-based income. We require a social security number (SSN) and a US address to process retirement plan distributions, which may impact your ability to offer the plan to certain employees or create the need to explore different options.
• Leased Employees: A non-employee who, pursuant to an agreement between the employer and any other entity ("leasing organization"), has performed services for the employer. If you typically use the service of a leasing organization for long-term contracts, we recommend that you obtain advice from legal counsel regarding the applicability and impact of any leasing terms on your plan.

Note: Part-time employees are not excluded.

Eligibility for Plan Participation

You may set certain conditions employees must satisfy in order to participate in the plan, upon meeting those conditions, the employee enters the plan on specified entry dates. The maximum statutory requirements you may apply are:

Age Requirements

This is the minimum age for an employee to become eligible to join the plan. The maximum selectable option is (by statute) age 21. Employees tend to choose between age 18 and 21, though it is not mandatory to have any age requirement.

Service Requirements

The employer can choose from the following service requirement options:

• No service requirement; employees can enter the plan on the 1st of the month on/after their date of hire
• 1, 3, 6, or 12 months of service; elapsed time

Note: The service requirements above apply to all employees, no matter how many hours they work. Part-time, seasonal, or temporary employees and interns are not excluded.

Entry Dates

Once employees meet the age and service requirements selected, they can join the plan as of the 1st of the month on/after meeting the requirements.