What Does Fully Vested In Retirement Plan Mean? 
What does fully vested mean in a retirement plan ? What it means is that `` both '' your contributions and your company 's `` matching '' contributions or profit sharing deposits on your behalf are fully yours . The company can not withhold those funds upon separation of service be it for retirement , layoff or simply quitting the job and going elsewhere . Once you 're fully vested the account balance is 100 % yours . 