Western States Income Security Fund Third Party Associates

Western States Income Security Fund Associated Third Party Administrators

In November 2004 I lost my job due to the company moving to Mexico. I worked there for 7 years and had a 401a plan. I put in a percentage of my weekly pay and the company added a set amount each month to it. Fast forward 18 months. I have been in school and living on unemployment and my savings for the last year and a half. I knew that the day I finished school my unemployment would be cut. No problem cuz I got a nice chunk of money in my 401a, right? Since I haven't worked all year taxes won't be bad, all they will do is hold 20% of the money before they release it to me. So here the nightmare starts

January 2006 - call Western States Income Security Fund (WSISF) and ask them how I go about withdrawing my money as I have not been employed in the industry for over 12 months. They said I can't draw on it until I'm 65. I'm like oh I didn't realize it was that kind of account.

Feb - Talked to a friend and they told me you can withdraw if you are buying a house to live in. I found property and a trailer thru private sellers. Called WSISF. They told me that they needed the lenders/mortgage person name and they would send the money directly to them. I told them I was paying cash for everything and I would send the bill of sale on the property and the trailer if they needed it for their records. They said I couldn't do that.

March - talked to a friend of mine that also worked at the company that went to Mexico (so has the same fund). She said she got her money by rolling it over into a money market account then pulling it out of there. So I called WSISF again. They said I could only roll it over into an approved account. I asked what was considered an approved account. They didn't know, said to ask my bank. Bank said account has to be approved by WSISF so they should know what type of account the money has to go into.

May - Reading the lovely little book that they you send that has all of the rules and regs for you fund. It specifically states that if I haven't been employed in the industry for at least 12 months I can cash out the entire fund. I call WSISF again. I tell them to get their little book and read the page. They're like "Oh, you haven't worked in the industry for a year, yes you can cash out the fund, we'll send you the paper work. 1 week later I get the papers and the option for cash out is marked N/A. I call them again and they send more papers.

June - I fill out the papers on the phone with them make sure I got it right. For proof of not working they want the original award letter (from 2 yrs ago) from unemployment and my last check stub from unemployment. Which by the grace of God I hung onto. I sign the papers make copies of everything and put it all in an envelope and mail it to them On June 7 to be exact. One month later nothing so I call them. They tell me it takes 60-90 days to process my request and that my envelope didn't have enough postage on so they didn't get it until June 23. What do they gotta do, print the money?!

August - At around the 60 day mark I call just to see how it's going with my request. They tell me they can't process it because they need 12 consecutive check stubs from unemployment. I point out that I have a copy of the paper that lists acceptable proof and I already sent them what the paper asked for. Then I happened to mention that I was in school for the last year. So they wanted a letter from the school stating my hours and dates of attendance, they also want a copy of my birth certificate, plus a written letter from me stating that I haven't worked in the last 12 months. I got it all together in a day and faxed it to them. Then I called them and asked if that was all they needed. They said yes and that I would actually have a check in my hand in about 7-14days. 7 days later I got a letter from them saying that they now needed a notarized signature in order to START processing my claim.

Gee, maybe I'm being paranoid but I'm starting to think they don't have my money or they're hoping if they stall long enough that I'll just give up and go away. Either way I think I need to get a lawyer. Sure am glad I hang on to phone bills and copy correspondence, cuz I can prove that I've been trying to get MY money for NINE MONTHS now. Jody Hesperia, Ca