What Does It Mean To Be Vested In A Retirement Plan? 
What does it mean to become fully vested in a retirement plan ? What it pertains to is the percentage an employee gets from employer contributions to their retirement plan . Fully vested means that the employee now `` owns '' 100 % of his/hers employer contributions to their retirement plans . The most common vesting schedule is a 5 year schedule that begins with 20 % and finishes at 100 % . Once at 100 % with no breaks in service you stay at 100 % . If an employee were to separate service after a year , they would take 100 % of their contributions and only 20 % of any employer matching . 