vested

1. Law. Settled, fixed, or absolute; being without contingency: a vested right.
2. Dressed or clothed, especially in ecclesiastical vestments.

Term indicating rights to pension benefits that are paid up and therefore not contingent upon the employee's continuing in the service of the employer. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Erisa) provides that an employee must be at least 25% vested in benefits derived from employer contributions after 5 years of covered service. By the time the employee has 15 years of covered service, vesting must have risen to 100%.

Pertaining to a nonforfeitable interest of a participant in a pension plan.

The phrase “vested rights” is today more a slogan for both admirers and detractors than a concept of determinate meaning. In a general way it connotes a legal regime that protects property rights both from private interference and from taking by government without compensation. It derives its force from more specific, analogous concepts of property law, such as vested estates or vested interests, and is an extrapolation of their content into the realm of public law, where it is associated with the more tangible doctrines of eminent domain and substantive due process.

— William M. Wiecek

Fixed, accrued, or absolute, see 170 S.W. 885, 888; not contingent; generally used to describe any right or title to something that is not dependent upon the occurrence or failure to occur of some specified future event (condition precedent). Although sometimes used to refer to an immediate possessory interest in property, the more technically proper definition also comprehends interests that will become rights to actual possession of the property at some later time [in futuro]. See 344 P. 2d 16, 21. Originally applied in reference to estates in real property, it has come to be applied to other property interests. See, e.g., 24 N.W. 161, 170-171 (personal property); 156 S.W. 2d 146, 151 (trusts), 4 N.W. 2d 919, 920 (alimony and child support payments). Compare contingent.

vested estate a property interest which is either currently in possession or will necessarily come into possession in the future merely upon the determination (end) of the preceding estate. Thus, for there to be a "vested estate" there must exist a known person who would have an immediate right to possession upon the expiration of the prior estate. See 157 S.W. 2d 429, 436. At common law "vested estate" was one that could be devised or alienated, whereas a contingent estate could not. Unlike a vested estate, a contingent estate depends upon the occurrence of an uncertain event or the future ascertainment of presently unknown takers. See 51 N.Y.S. 1038, 1042. Contingent estates can now be devised and alienated, albeit with the uncertainty that the estate may never pass to the grantee. See also estate [vested estate].

vested interest "a present right or title to a thing, which carries with it an existing right of alienation, even though the right to possession or enjoyment may be postponed to some uncertain time in the future. . . ." 120 S.W. 2d 779, 781. See interest.

vested remainder "[a remainder] which is limited to an ascertained person in being, whose right to the estate is fixed and certain, and [which] does not depend upon the happening of any future event, but whose enjoyment [of the estate] is postponed to some future time." 102 S.E. 643, 644. See contingent remainder.

vested rights in relation to constitutional guarantees, it is a broad shield of protection consisting of "a vested interest which it is right and equitable that the government should recognize and protect, and of which the individual could not be deprived arbitrarily without injustice." 65 N.W. 2d 785, 791. The term "is frequently used to designate a right which has become so fixed that it is not subject to [being] divested without the consent of the owner." 84 P. 2d 552, 554.

The term "vested rights" is commonly used in reference to employee pension and retirement plans. An employee's pension rights are deemed "vested" when he or she has completed the minimum term of employment necessary to be eligible to receive retirement pay in the future. "Vested" pension rights are distinguished from "matured" pension rights in that once a pension right has matured there is an unconditional right to immediate receipt of retirement payments. See 437 A. 2d 883, 885. See ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974].