employee’s 65th birthday (the default investment option) until designated investments have been elected by the participant.
All contributions are considered tax deferred under section 401(a) of the IRC, with the exception of Roth elective deferrals, which are made on an after-tax basis.
Participant Accounts – Individual accounts are maintained for each Plan participant. Each participant’s account is credited with the participant’s contributions, employer matching contributions, Plan earnings/losses (based on each participant’s investment elections), and charged with withdrawals and administrative expenses. Participants are immediately vested in their contributions and allocated earnings or losses. The Company matching contributions and allocated earnings or losses related to matching are vested after a participant has three years of service with the Company. The benefit to which a participant is entitled is one that can be provided from the participant’s vested account balance.
Forfeited Accounts – At October 31, 2020 and 2019, forfeited nonvested accounts totaled $33 thousand and $39 thousand, respectively. These accounts will be used to reduce future Company contributions. During the year ended October 31, 2020, Company contributions were reduced by $150 thousand from forfeited nonvested accounts.
Fund Elections – Participants in the Plan direct the investment of their account balances into one or more investment funds, which include the following as of October 31, 2020:
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Wells Fargo Core Plus Bond Fund
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Deere & Company Common Stock Fund*
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Any of 23 Common Collective Trust Funds
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*Participants may not invest more than 20% of their future contributions in the Deere & Company Common Stock Fund or make an exchange into the Deere & Company Stock Fund that would result in the participant’s Deere & Company Stock Fund holdings exceeding 20% after the exchange.
In addition, participants have access to Fidelity BrokerageLink, which is a self-directed brokerage account. Through this account, a participant has access to over 3,000 open-ended mutual funds from a variety of fund families.
The Plan includes an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and dividend payout feature whereby participants may elect to receive dividends on their vested shares of Company common stock in the Deere & Company Common Stock Fund in either cash or as a reinvestment in Company common stock. If no election is made, the default option is reinvestment in Company common stock.
Loans – Employees who participate in the Plan are eligible to borrow against their account balances. Loans must be at least $1,000 and are limited to the lesser of $50,000 (reduced by the participant’s highest outstanding loan balance during the immediately preceding one year period) or 50 percent of their vested account balances on the effective dates of the loans, and the term of a loan may not exceed five years (ten years if the loan proceeds are used to purchase a primary residence). The loans are secured by the balance in the participant’s account and interest is assessed at a rate which is determined based on the published prime interest rate. Repayment for actively employed participants is intended to be made via payroll deductions. A participant with an outstanding loan at the time of unpaid leave of absence, retirement, or separation from service may opt to continue making loan payments through the financial institution of their choice, which sends payments to