How to Find Your Lost 401(k)

In the haphazard U.S. retirement system, there is not an easy way to make sure your retirement assets follow you throughout your career. Specifically, no central database exists to help you find your old 401(k)s or pensions. Any changes to the current state may need to wait for Congress, but a bill has been sponsored to create a “retirement lost-and-found,” a searchable database for those abandoned accounts. Currently, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. runs a “missing-participants program,” a searchable database for traditional pension plans. The agency is trying to expand the program into 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans. However, the agency will be competing with private niche companies in this area, but it plans to offer modern search tools to help with finding these participants and beneficiaries. 

See Ben Steverman, Lost Track of an Old 401(k)? Here’s How to Find It, Financial Advisor, September 19, 2016.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.