Former Employer is Holding on to 401k Funds

[coinbag]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: IL

Hello, I am interested in seeing if this is actually legal or not. My previous company has held on to my 401k money for over 9 months.

Here is their reasoning:
"Each year we are required by our third party administrator to do a year-end audit before we are allowed to process any distribution requests.

As the Plan Administrator I am required to approve your form and send it over to our third party administrator for verification and peer review. Upon approval, our third party administrator forwards the request to XXXXX401k company for processing. "

If I leave the company, am I entitled to get my money out and roll it over to my new 401k as soon as I leave or am I required to go by their rules and jump through their hoops for months on end before being able to get my own money?

The HR department avoids emails and phone calls or makes excuses on why not to return messages. Can they hold my money this long?

Thanks in advance.

[cbg]

You, and they, are required by extremely strict Federal law to go by the rules of the specific plan and the specific plan document. If your specific plan has a limitation that no funds can be disbursed until after the year-end audit, then they would be in violation of the law if they were to release the money before that. You are not guaranteed under any law whatsoever to be allowed to do your roll over immediately.