Unclaimed Pension Benefit Search

Because they are long-term investments payable well into the future, pension benefits often "slip through the cracks." Plan administrators typically make little effort to locate lost beneficiaries who may have moved or changed name over the years, and many companies themselves move, change name, merge or are acquired by others, making them difficult to trace.

Even if a former employer is no longer in business or otherwise has an underfunded pension plan, one should not necessarily assume benefits are lost. The Department of Labor's Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation insures over 55,000 defined-benefit private pension plans covering 42 million workers and retirees under the terms of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). More than 22,000 missing workers are eligible to claim $80 million in unclaimed pension benefits.

Also, each year some 33,000 workers fail to claim or rollover $850 million in 401(k) retirement plan assets. A disproportionate share of the missing are former employees of failed smaller companies, which, when they cease operations, may not provide or plan for administration of employee 401k plan assets.

Retirement funds invested in 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement plans belong to the employee, so 401k plan participants are protected when an employer files for bankruptcy or otherwise ceases business. Because plan assets continue to earn interest and accumulate capital gains, amounts that can be reclaimed may now be quite substantial.

For assistance tracking down lost and unpaid pension benefits, go to: Unclaimed Pension Search

Special Note: Thousands of former employees of companies whose pension plans were terminated between 1976 and 1981 and who were denied payment of benefits by PBGC may be eligible to participate in a 1996 class action legal settlement with the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Employees in some 12,000 terminated pension plans became entitled to payments averaging $10-12,000.