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To: Estimated Prophet who wrote (179)12/17/1998 9:33:00 PM
From: EL KABONG!!!  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 242
 
EP,

The company is allowed a reasonable period of time to deposit the withholdings into the 401(k) vehicle. Don't hold me to this, but I think the period is defined as 15 days following the month in which the 401(k) withholding occurred. So (using this month as an example), if you were an every Friday paycheck employee, that means that the monies withheld on 12/04/98, 12/11/98, 12/18/98 and 12/25/98 wouldn't have to be in the 401(k) investment vehicle until 01/15/99. The company is allowed to invest the withholdings into a (safe) short term investment vehicle (such as overnights) and pocket the earnings to offset the costs of administering the plan, even though the investment vehicle itself (say Fidelity) charges you a periodic administrative fee. If you're really interested, you can look it up under the ERISA laws at the Department of Labor. But you need to be a lawyer to understand... Oh, wait. You are a lawyer. Be my guest...

KJC



To: Estimated Prophet who wrote (179)12/17/1998 10:44:00 PM
From: jbIII  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 242
 
EP,

I agree about the 401K monies, they should be deposited immediately.
I get paid every other Friday and every other Monday I check my balance and note that a deposit has been made. However, one of the funds in the account is for the company stock. The money deposited is credited in units, which are a fraction of an actual share, based on the closing price that Friday. These units will grow or lose value based on the performance of the stock. Since these units can freely be traded to other types of funds, I doubt that the fund actually owns an equivalent amount of shares for the stock for all employees or participants. And when I make a transfer I doubt that shares are actually bought or sold to cover my transaction. Since all employees are not going to cash in at the same time, it doesn't matter.


I think this discussion started with this post from Terke<sp>
I work for a company that has payroll deduction for company stock purchases. Calling a number that is provided to check when the last stock purchase was executed always reveals a 1 1/2 to 2 month lag. In other words, we just got paid last Thursday but the last purchase of company stock was 10/30/98. When I asked our payroll supervisor about this he said not to worry.

I think this person (need to get more PC, can't tell my he's from she's around here) is getting confused as to the value of his personal account and the assets of his companies overall fund. It seems like the company is making block purchases , either to cut costs or market timing to get a better deal. If he's in a program to purchase X amount of shares at Y$ after 6 mos and pays Z% per share per payday, it doesn't matter when the company buys stock on the market just as long as the shares are available at the end of the payment period. If he cashes in early, he is just pulling out the cash he put in and forfeits any growth that may have occured, and likewise shouldn't suffer any losses. This is the type plan I'm familiar with. With this plan you can't actually exercise the option and take possession of the stock until the 6 mos or required time period is up. And usually there is an additional period when you can wait to exercise.

I certainly don't know all the plans available. If his program is actually supposed to buy stock on an ongoing basis, that can be redeemed for shares at any time, and there is no employee discount or interest earned during the withholding period, then he certainly should expect timely purchases and deposits to his account. In a case like this there is no guarantee on purchase price or redemption value and that sounds pretty risky to me. Although there could be an argument there for DollarCost averaging. Point is it really doesn't matter when the stock is actually bought as long as his personal account reflects the "real" value.

or Not ;O)

jb3
My time coming any day, don't worry 'bout me, no
It's gonna be just like they say, them voices tell me so
Seems so long I felt this way and time sure passing slow
Still I know I lead the way, they tell me where I go