Fidelity won’t update my 401k vested amount

Submitted by jewels210 t3_11atkbz in personalfinance

My 401k is through Fidelity and I should be fully (100%) vested in my employer’s contributions as of my third anniversary in October 2022. Despite multiple calls and confirmation with the Fidelity reps that I should be 100% vested, nothing has changed on my account page (still shows that I’m only 30% vested). They claim they are waiting for my employer to verify my employment but won’t give me the company’s contact person. Is there anything else I can do? My fear is that this will continued to be ignored and I’ll never be fully vested.

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Werewolfdad t1_j9twfvt wrote

Are you still employed there? If so, don't worry about it

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jewels210 OP t1_j9txmzq wrote

I’m still employed, but went from full-time to PRN

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turinturambar81 t1_j9u2b9c wrote

You're barking up the wrong tree. Fidelity is the plan custodian/administrator, they do what your employer tells them. If you don't know who to contact at your employer, start with HR.

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Erlyn3 t1_j9uhobm wrote

This is the way.

My company is small and only has one HR person, but any update to my 401k needs to be confirmed/implemented by her.

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Werewolfdad t1_j9txrr8 wrote

> PRN

You'll need to confirm how that impacts the vesting

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jewels210 OP t1_j9u31kt wrote

Good point on the PRN status change and how that might affect vesting. I assumed since I still received employer contributions despite the status change that it would still qualify for being vested on the same timeframe as someone who is full-time, but I’ll look into this. Thanks again!

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wickedkittylitter t1_j9tx3tu wrote

It sounds like you're still employed with the employer offering the 401k plan. That means you should have access to payroll and HR employees that you can contact to talk to about verifying your employment with Fidelity. Start calling or emailing until you get someone who can answer your questions.

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Psychological-Cod231 t1_j9u3vds wrote

This is something your employer most likely needs to talk to them about. I'm guessing there's a wrong date somewhere in their payroll system and it's getting reuploaded each time contributions are made to Fidelity.

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jello2good1 t1_j9upieh wrote

Fidelity is the one that holds your money and holds the records of your balance. Changes are usually decided by your employer and made by your plan administrators. Talk with owner or HR, the one that usually deals with the 401k plan in your company to confirm when your statement will reflect full vesting.

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jewels210 OP t1_j9ux733 wrote

Thank you! Will do! I would have thought the Fidelity reps would have advised to contact my employer directly in the 5 times I spoke with them. Instead they reported that they would be the ones to take care of it. My fault for being ignorant…

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jello2good1 t1_j9uyjjx wrote

Yeah it is pretty confusing system since you only know fidelity and probably nothing about your plan administrators. Hope you get it figured out!

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iheartgt t1_j9u21om wrote

How do you not know who to contact at your company? Is there not an HR department?

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jewels210 OP t1_j9u2g2s wrote

This is a large company and it sounds like the person Fidelity is reaching out to is some sort of middleman. I asked if it would be beneficial to contact someone in my HR department and Fidelity didn’t seem to think so, but I’ll attempt that route.

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iheartgt t1_j9u2lan wrote

Your HR should be able to point you in the right direction. Especially if it's a large company they should know how to answer this quickly.

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WoodsyBear t1_j9vldkw wrote

This happened to me too. I went from fully vested to only vested in my contributions overnight. Reached out to HR and they contacted fidelity to get it changed back. Was updated the next business day.

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dwinps t1_j9z8ltz wrote

You are vested, it doesn’t matter when Fidelity gets their records updated

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