Retirement plans, including pension and 401(k) plans, sometimes lose track of retirement plan participants owed benefits. These people are known as “missing participants.” Retirement plans lose track of missing participants for a variety of reasons, including incomplete recordkeeping and workers changing jobs. In other cases, workers may lose track of their retirement plans after their former employer goes out of business or when companies merge. The SECURE 2.0 Act directed EBSA to establish the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find their retirement benefits.
The Retirement Savings Lost and Found database started accepting data on Nov. 18, 2024, and it is expected to go live by Dec. 29, 2024. EBSA will be working with plan administrators, recordkeepers and others to populate the database before it is launched to the public.
To populate the database, the department needs retirement plan administrators, recordkeepers and other service providers to work together to voluntarily provide the information as a first step towards making the database available to the public. The notice of information collection request describes the specific data elements the agency is seeking and how information can be submitted. Based on an earlier proposed collection information notice, the EBSA has received comments and coordinated with stakeholders on how to best collect and protect this data.
EBSA conducts extensive investigations into circumstances surrounding missing participants. Since 2017, enforcement efforts have recovered more than $7 billion in retirement benefits paid directly to missing participants and beneficiaries.
