All Guideline accounts have an automatic enrollment provision. This means once your plan starts or your employees become eligible, they will automatically be enrolled and begin contributing into the plan at the default deferral rate.
Auto-enrollment notifications are sent out within 30 days of employee eligibility. If an employee missed the deadline for opting out, it may be possible for them to request a refund of their contributions in some cases.
When is an employee eligible for an automatic enrollment refund?
To be eligible for an auto-enrollment refund, your plan must include an eligible automatic contribution arrangement (EACA) or a qualified automatic contribution arrangement (QACA), which are included in most Guideline plans. Standard automatic contribution arrangement (ACA) plans are not eligible for auto-enrollment refunds.
Additionally, the refund must be requested within 90 days of the employee’s first automatic contribution.
Any employee who would like to receive a refund must complete the request within their Guideline dashboards. Feel free to share these step-by-step directions of the process with any inquiring employees.
Can an employee opt back in after receiving a refund or opting out?
While requesting a refund will automatically set the employee’s deferral election to 0, they can opt back in at any time. They can do so by logging into their Guideline participant dashboard and increasing their contribution rate to greater than 0%.