DOL Introduces Lost and Found Database
By Jane Smith
Looking for your retirement benefits from a former employer?
The Department of Labor has developed a searchable online database that may make it easier for former employees to find their earned benefits. The Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database is a resource for employees who separated from employment and still have earned retirement benefits in their former employer’s plan.
For many years, the Pension Rights Center encouraged the development of such a database to connect former employees to their earned benefits. We receive calls every week from former employees looking for their benefits. The Database will enable former employees to search for their old employers whose plans may be holding benefits for them.
Development of the Database was included in the SECURE Act of 2022. The Database uses information provided to the IRS by private-sector plans sponsored by employers and unions. It does not include information on former employees of church or government plans. Users of the Database can find their former employers’ plans who reported that they separated from employment with benefits still owed. Because the time that a former employer plan reported the benefits could be years ago, the benefits may already have been paid out to you.
Users of the Database may contact the former plan’s plan administrator to find out whether the benefits reported are still in the plan or were previously paid out. The Labor Department’s information includes some helpful questions and answers about the Database.
For security reasons, the Department of Labor requires a Login.gov account to access the Database. This ensures that former employees are the only ones who can access their own information. The Database’s website includes information on how to verify your identity and establish an account. For people without a mobile device, the website includes alternative methods that users can use to verify their identity. See Login.gov for more information.
The Lost and Found Database is only as good as the information provided by the plan administrators of the employer-sponsored plans, often many years ago. Users may find that the database does not have all their employers listed, or may not show that benefits are due from an employer plan if the benefits were paid out long ago. Also, the employer and plan contact information may be out of date.
The Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database is new. The Labor Department will be revising and updating the website to improve the information provided. Additional information added in the future may include the location of small accounts that were transferred to IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) or to insurance companies when the employee could not be found, and current contact information for plans sponsored by employers who changed addresses, merged with another company or went out of business. Additionally, the Labor Department is asking employer plans to submit historic data for the website to improve its usefulness.
At the Pension Rights Center, we are excited to have the Labor Department’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database up and running. The Database will help many former employees find their old employers’ plans so they may claim the retirement benefits they earned.
