This is about an ESOP plan which had made contributions years ago, so it has a number of participants with more than 10 years of service. The ESOP first started to make contributions after 1987 in 1998. For a participant who meets the requirements of age and participation but has no eligible contributions to diversify, does their QEP actually start the year of their first new contributions? So would 1998 be Year 1? There is another participant who received his first post 1987 contributions in 2000 at age 60 with over 10 years participation. Would 2000 be the actual first year of his QEP?

Thank you

Should I be going elsewhere to post ESOP questions? There doesn't seem to be much interest on here.

Hi Crosseyedtester:

ESOPs are very relevant!

The qualified election period starts when the participant has attained the age and participation requirements, and it is not affected by whether or not they have shares allocated to their account at that time.