Changing Employers and What Moves With You

A resignation here ends more than a salary. Health cover, retirement savings, equity and in some cases immigration status all respond to the same event on different schedules.

Health cover usually ends quickly

Employer health insurance typically terminates at the end of the employment or the end of that month, and the exact date is set by the plan rather than by convention.

Continuation of the same cover at your own cost is available in defined circumstances, and it is expensive because the employer's share is no longer being paid.

Starting a new job usually opens a fresh enrolment window, but cover may not begin on day one. The gap between the two dates is the exposure worth checking before resigning.

Retirement savings stay yours, with conditions

Your own contributions to a workplace retirement plan are yours. Employer contributions may be subject to a vesting schedule, and unvested amounts are forfeited on departure.

Where a vesting date falls close to a resignation date, the difference between the two can be substantial, and it is a legitimate factor in timing a move.

The account itself can generally be left in place, moved to the new employer's plan or transferred to an individual account. The options carry different rules and are worth confirming before acting.

Equity has its own clock

Unvested equity is normally forfeited on leaving. Vested options frequently carry a short window in which they must be exercised, after which they lapse.

Exercising can require real cash and can have tax consequences at the moment of exercise rather than at sale, which is a situation that has caught many people out.

Because the treatment depends on the instrument and on individual circumstances, this is a matter for a tax professional rather than for a colleague's account of what happened to them.

Sponsored status is the most sensitive item

Where employment authorisation is tied to a specific employer, changing jobs is an immigration matter as much as a career one, with its own filings and timing.

Rules on transferring, on any permitted gap and on the treatment of a pending application vary by category and have changed over time.

Nothing about this should be planned from general description. It is exactly the situation that should send somebody back to their attorney before a resignation is given.

The practical sequence

The safe order is to have a written offer, confirm the immigration position, check vesting dates and cover start dates, and only then resign.

Two weeks is the conventional notice, and while it is rarely a legal requirement, leaving on good terms matters in industries where paths cross repeatedly.

Retrieve your own records before the last day, including payslips, benefit statements and anything documenting your employment, since access to internal systems ends immediately.