If your company merges or consolidates with another company that also has a 401(k) plan with Guideline, one of the first steps you should take is to notify Guideline. Depending on how the companies are going to operate after the acquisition, your company may choose to continue with 2 separate plans operating within a legally related group or merge the 2 plans into a single 401(k) plan.
If you choose to merge the 2 plans, here's what you can expect:
Participants will have accounts established in the surviving plan as soon as they’re onboarded into the surviving company’s payroll records.
Guideline will automatically transfer assets from the former plan to the surviving plan without action from individual participants. Participants will not be given the option to take a distribution based on the plan merger.
Guideline will file a Final Form 5500 upon asset merger to document the merger of the plans.
Guideline will file the typical Form 5500 for the surviving plan that shows the assets transferred from the merged plan.