Last Updated on March 17, 2024 by Ben

Waste Management Retirement

Waste Management Retirement Savings Plan

The following representation of the Waste Management Retirement Savings Plan (the “Plan”) gives only general information. Participants should read the plan document, which has complete information about the plan’s provisions.

Waste Management offers a plan to all of its employees called The Plan. The Plan is defined as a plan that is available to everyone who works for Waste Management. The Plan is subject to the purveying of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”).

Eligibility

Employees can participate in the plan after they work for the company for 90 days. People who cannot participate in the plan include people who don’t have a job or are on a temporary contract. They also include people whose jobs are governed by a contract that is being negotiated. If the contract says that they can’t participate, then they can’t.

This agreement is for people who work for the company as independent contractors. Individuals who do this work will be able to provide services to the Company. Certain employees might also be able to, and they’ll have a different agreement with the company. They are temporary workers, or they are nonresident aliens who don’t earn any money from the US, and Individuals who are participants in certain other pensions, retirement, profit-sharing, stock bonus, or thrift plans maintained by the Company.

They are not part of the Waste Management Pension Plan for Collectively Bargained Employees or any other company plan that might be determined at a later date. If you are an American citizen, and you work for a company that is not in the United States but is part of the Company, then you could participate in this plan.

Contributions

If you are a worker, you might have to pay money into your company’s retirement plan. You can decide how much. It will be based on what you earn for the year. You cannot contribute more than a certain amount of money, though. People who are 50 or older can put in up to $5,000 of their pre-tax money when they join the plan. But they are after-tax money that cannot be used. People who are participants may also contribute money that is from other plans.

This means that they can contribute some of the money they have saved to their other retirement plan. The Company will give you money from your work. They’ll match the money you have. So, if you put in more than one percent of your pay, they’ll put in another one percent for a total of three percent. And then they’ll add another 50% on top of that for a total of six percent!

Investment Options

The Plan, between its investments in the Master Trust, is offering participants.

(a) There are six common collective trust funds.;
(b)A company common stock fund is a type of investment. It helps you keep the money for the future.;
(c) A self-managed account is when you choose the securities that you want to invest in. You can buy securities from the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange and also from NASDAQ. (d) Five target retirement-date funds are common collective trust funds.

You can participate in the self-managed account, but you need to have a minimum balance requirement. The Plan is something that can hold money. The plan will help people with their money, too. People who invest in the Company common stock fund have the right to vote for anything that comes before shareholders. If a participant invests in the self-managed account, they can vote on what to do with any common stock that is held in their account.

Participant Accounts

Each person’s account is credited with their own way of contributing. The person’s contribution, the company’s contribution, and the investment income are all put into that one account. People who have a share of investments get money from the profits. The amount they get is based on how much they invested.

Payment of Benefits

People can make money from a retirement account when they retire, go on disability, or if they lose their job. If someone dies, the people who have been named as the beneficiary of the account can also take money from it. You can withdraw your money from this account when you are 59-1/2 years old.

You can do it in one lump sum, or you might want to do it by moving the money into another account. Distribution of accounts invested in the Company’s common stock can be done with whole shares of common stock or cash. Some people can make money from their accounts when they have a really hard time. They can do this without paying taxes if the person can prove they have a financial hardship. You can only take out one hardship withdrawal in any 12-month period. And you cannot contribute to the plan for six months after taking the hardship withdrawal.

Loans

Someone who is an employee may get a loan of not less than $1,000 and up to 50% of the vested account balance (excluding any money invested in the self-managed account) before they get the loan. You can take out up to $50,000, but it may be less if you already owe money on your house. This is the amount that will not be reduced by any of the following:

(a) money you owe on other loans; or
(b) the amount of money that you owe on your loan now. It is a rule that only one loan should be outstanding, except if you have a new loan from merging your plan or if your loan becomes taxable under Section 72(p) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as revised.

The Administrative Committee sets the interest rates and repayment terms. You can pay back your loan in different ways if you want. The Administrative Committee approves that way. the Administrative Committee needs

(a)Payments should happen every quarter;
(b)Loans can be repaid over a period of 54 months or less.
(c) The payments on a loan will need to be equal, and they will be applied to the principal. This means that you can pay it off faster.

Summary of Accounting Policies

Basis of Accounting

The financial statements are using the way that money is counted. There are two ways to count money. The other way is called cash accounting. It happens when somebody pays for something before they take it, like paying for gas now instead of later. Benefits are recorded when somebody gets them, not when they are paid.

Use of Estimates

When the company prepares financial statements, they need to make estimates. That means that they can’t look at all their money. They include some of it in their plan assets and liabilities and subtract other things from net assets available for benefits; the estimates are made because some of the information is not known. For example, this could be because it’s not possible to calculate the number or that there are no data available., This is hard to figure out because it’s complicated. Management has to think about the financial statements. It’s hard to realize what will happen, but this is an estimate of what might happen.

Investments

The purpose of the Master Trust is for it to be a place where employees can invest their money. It collects assets from all participating employee benefit plans of the company and its subsidiaries. The Master Trust is made of several plans. The assets are given to the different plans by assigning specific transactions (contributions, payments, and expenses) to each plan. We divide the money we get from mortgages and investments into all of our plans. We divide it by the amount we think each plan deserves. If we invest in something that makes money, that money will go to all of our plans.

Risks and Uncertainties

The Plan provides for investments in different kinds of stocks, bonds, and other things. These are exposed to various risks. For example, the interest rates might change or if someone might not pay back what they owe (credit risk). They also can be affected by how good the economy is (overall market volatility). Some investments are riskier than others. There is a chance that the values of these investments will change in the near future, which could work on how much money you have coming in.

Investment Contracts

There are a lot of different investments in the Master Trust. One of them is the Stable Value Fund, which invests in GICs and Synthetic GICs.The following disclosures provide information about investments. Guaranteed Investment Contracts are contracts that give you a specific amount of money for a certain number of years. The fair values of the GICs in the Plan’s Stable Value Fund are measured using a method called discounted cash flow. Under this approach, the cash flows of each individual contract are discounted with an interpolated swap rate. That is a rate that changes as time goes on.

Plan Interest in the Master Trust

The Plan has investments in the Master Trust. The Union Plan also has an investment in the Master Trust. At the end of 2007 and 2006, 99.70% and 99.72% of all assets in the Master Trust were invested by the Plan and Union Plan respectively.

The Union Plan and the Plan do not share an interest in investments held in the Master Trust. That is because each plan has an interest based on how much money people have in their savings account with them and what kind of investment they choose to be in. However, the Plan’s interest in each of the investment funds is not very different from the Plan’s interest in all of the money that is saved.

Federal Income Taxes

The Plan qualified for a determination letter from the IRS. We don’t have to pay taxes because we qualified under Section 401(a) of the Code. After the IRS said that the Plan had to be qualified, it was changed. Once you are qualified, you have to do what the Code says so you can stay qualified. The Plan Sponsor said that they would take steps to make sure that the operations of the plan are in line with the law.

Plan Termination

Although the company has not said that it will do this, it does have that right. It can stop its plan to contribute money and go away with its plan.

Conclusion

The Waste Management Retirement Program is a retirement program for employees who have contributed to the company’s pension fund. Employees, spouses, and dependents are eligible if they meet certain conditions. This could be an option for you if your employer doesn’t offer one or if you want more control over how much money goes into your account each month. For most employees, this is a better option than a 401(k) because you are able to make more money and you have more control over your money.