I am 44 and have been on Long-Term Disability for over 6 years. I have an ESOP with my employer valued at $65,000.00. The ESOP is part of my employer's Retirement Plan.

Last year i requested a distribution assuming that disabled equated to retired. Unfortunately, the Summary Plan stated that retired is 55 or older regardless of disability status.

I am in desperate financial need of these funds and want to request a Hardship Withdrawal instead. The Summary Plan makes no mention of either allowing or prohibiting this type of distribution.

My questions are:

Do i have any right to a Hardship Withdrawal of these funds if it has not been prohibited in the Summary Plan?

Does the recent legislation regarding Retirement Plan distributions benefit me considering my request and situation?

Can an exception be made if the Retirement Plan Committee or Fiduciary allows it?

Thank you in advance to anyone who can give me some advice or recommend a resource so i can research this further.

The terms of a distribution from an ESOP is a condition of employment which is defined in the plan. The plan does not have to allow hardship distribution. If distribution is limited to age 55 and there are no hardship distribition then the funds are not available. Q- are funds available if you terminate employment?

hi mjb, thanks for responding and for the advice.

The funds are available if i terminate but i would not receive them until i turned 55. Again....the age problem.

And to terminate would mean sacrificing other benefits that i need right now, namely medical.

But again, thanks for the response.

take care, mike

As was correctly stated by mbozek, you can't receive a hardship distribution unless it is expressly permitted by the terms of the ESOP.

I've done a lot of work with ESOPs over the years, and I've never seen one that permits hardship distributions.

Thanks Kirk, appeciate you letting me know.

Take care,

Mike