Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Marguerita is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor ...

Any money that you put into your 401(k) is yours. But when it comes to employer match contributions, things work a little differently. To own any portion of your employer's contributions, you'll need ...

A top-heavy plan must provide that an employee has a non-forfeitable right to his or her accrued benefit derived from employer contributions in accordance with one of the two following requirements: ...

If you have a 401(k) account that offers an employer match, you may have to stay at the job for a certain length of time before those contributions become yours. That’s called vesting and it’s ...

Explore retirement plan forfeitures, their causes, and tax implications, with strategies for minimizing forfeitures and maximizing retirement savings.

Start with simple definitions before discussing numbers. A stock option gives an employee the right to buy company shares later at a fixed price called the strike price. Clarify that options are not ...

Founder share vesting means that a founder may keep a certain percentage or all of their stocks or shares only after leaving the company post a specified period or event. A one-year cliff is generally ...