What (if any) is the legal amount of time it should take to get monies paid to a 401k that has been cashed out????

Could you please restate the question? Are you asking how soon you should receive a 401(k) distribution after terminating employment and submitting paperwork? Or do you mean how soon any trailing contributions should be deposited to the trust and then paid out after a participant has withdrawn the bulk of their account? The current phraseology is unclear.

I apoligize for my lack of investments terms . To put it in laymens terms,How long should it take to receive monies from a 401k plan after I have resigned my work position and have submitted all paperwork to receive the monies?

There is no legal maximum. It depends on how your former employer's plan is operated. If the plan is annually valued (i.e., they only determine how much each person's 401(k) account is worth once each year), it can take over a year for payment to be processed. I suggest that you follow up with your former employer and ask them when you should expect your payment.

remember, the company has to follow the terms of the document as well.
we have a few plans that only allow a payout date following the year of termination.
for example, if you quit in April, and were full time, you worked over 500 hours. If the plan is a standardized plan, you would be eligible for a profit sharing contribution, and that wouldn't be made until after the end of 2001. And the company could wait as long as 9/2002 to actually make that contribution! so sometimes there are reasons for delays.
All that being said, if all participants have individual accounts, then I would expect you to receive statements shortly. If the money is pooled and the plan is processed quarterly, then you better figure at least a month after 3/31/

If the paperwork you submitted included an election whether or not you wished to receive payment as part of the rollover, that election is valid for only 90 days. The fact that the plan administrator or recordkeeper gave you the distribution form may indicate that the plan allows payments shortly after termination of employment, which is typical although not required (as the previous two posts indicate).

Contact the plan administrator to ask when you can expect to receive payment, but if it's more than 90 days since you submitted your distribution form, ask some more questions.

At another firm I had a employer call me due to a participant filing suit in small claims court alleging that the employer "refused to distribute his vested benefit." It was a balance forward plan valued annually.The document was written that distributions were to be paid "as soon as adminstratively feasible" after the valuation date following the termination date of the participant. I went to court and within 5 minutes of my testimony the judge dismissed the case. The employee continued to call the employer religously and we calculated his benefit just as soon as we had all investment and census information the following year.

All of this being said, like previously stated, check with the Plan Administrator and ask historically how long have other terminated employees had to wait for their vested benefit.