During the frenzy of leaving behind an old job and getting acclimated to a new position, rolling over your 401(k) plan isn’t always your first priority. Some people even lose track of a 401(k) plan at a former employer. Here’s what to do if you’re trying to find funds held in a previous employer’s 401(k) plan.
Contact Your Former Employer.
The simplest and most direct way to check up on an old 401(k) plan is to contact the human resources department or the 401(k) administrator at the company where you used to work. Be prepared to state your dates of employment and Social Security number so that plan records can be checked. “Hopefully you have some record regarding your 401(k) and you have contact information for either the employer or the entity that is administering the plan for the employer,” says Anna-Marie Tabor, director of the Pension Action Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “If you know who administers the plan, you should reach out to the administrator and explain the situation.” It can be helpful to find old 401(k) statements. You can also check whether you made a 401(k) contribution in a given year on box 12 of your W-2 tax forms. When you file for Social Security benefits you may receive a SSA Potential Private Pension Benefit Information Notice, which contains Internal Revenue Service data about employer retirement benefits you earned while working.
[Read: How to Find a Lost Pension Plan.]
Look For Current Contact Information.
If your former employer no longer exists, perhaps due to a buyout, merger or going out of business, you will need to look into what became of the company. “A lot times people have trouble finding their 401(k) plan because their employer doesn’t exist anymore,” Tabor says. “You may be able to track down the company that has acquired the employer.” Check news reports or reach out to other former employees to find out if another company purchased or merged with your former employer. Most 401(k) plans are required to file paperwork with the federal government, and you can search these ERISA Form 5500 filings at freeerisa.com using the name of your former employer to try to find current contact information. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has an Abandoned Plan Database, which can help you determine if a retirement plan has been terminated and provide contact information for the qualified termination administrator.
[See: 401(k) Mistakes to Avoid.]
Search Unclaimed Property Databases.
You can check the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits at unclaimedretirementbenefits.com to see if your former employer has listed you as a missing or non-responsive 401(k) participant. The database contains information about retirement account balances that have not been claimed. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Missing Participants Program has recently been expanded to include 401(k) plans that terminate on or after January 1, 2018. The PBGC will pay out benefits with interest when participants are found. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators runs unclaimed.org, a tool that allows you to search for unclaimed assets by state. You can also conduct a multi-state search on missingmoney.com. “Look up any name you have ever used and any state you have ever lived in,” says Mary Pitman, author of “The Little Book of Missing Money: A Quick and Easy Guide to Finding Money that is Rightfully Yours.” “Just because you have looked before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look again, because new listings get added all the time.”
Look for Forced Transfer IRAs.
If you left behind a small balance of less than $5,000 in an old 401(k) plan and didn’t indicate what should be done with the money when you left the job, your savings may not still be in the 401(k) plan. The plan sponsor could have transferred the 401(k) balance to an individual retirement account in your name at a financial institution. “The plan would have had to send a notice of where they were opening the IRA, so a person should check old plan documents,” says Charles Jeszeck, director of education, workforce and income security at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “There is no central repository of tracking data for forced IRA transfers.”
Over half (58 percent) of 401(k) plans transfer balances between $1,000 and $5,000 to an IRA when the participant leaves the employer and cash out balances of less than $1,000, according to a 2018 Plan Sponsor Council of America survey of 605 401(k) plans and similar types of retirement accounts. “It can be very difficult for a participant to find a small account that has been rolled over to an IRA without the participant’s knowledge,” says Jane Smith, a policy analyst at the Pension Rights Center. “If the employer is still in business, you could ask the employer which IRA provider they generally use for forced transfers. You also could ask the service provider for the plan how they handle forced transfers and which IRA providers they use.”
[See: 10 Tips for Rolling Over a 401(k) When You Change Jobs.]
Preventing a Lost 401(k) Plan.
Tracking down a 401(k) associated with a job you held decades ago can be difficult and time consuming. Taking the time to roll over a 401(k) to an IRA or your new employer’s 401(k) plan each time you change jobs will make your retirement savings easier to manage and gives you more control over investment options and fees. Initiating a trustee-to-trustee transfer to move your money directly to the new account allows you to avoid tax withholding and the potential to trigger additional taxes and penalties. “Roll over your retirement plan to your new employer when you change jobs or fund your own IRA,” Pitman says. “A rollover without taking money out usually does not incur any penalties.”
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How to Find an Old 401(k) Account originally appeared on usnews.com
