DOL to Help MetLife and Brighthouse Shut Down Abandoned Plans

An asset custodian may be able to hand a plan over to the government's Abandoned Plan Program if the plan has had no contributions or distributions for at least 12 months.

Before handing the plan over, the custodian must first make reasonable efforts to find the plan sponsor, officials say.

The Abandoned Plan Program will consider taking responsibility for a plan if the asset manager cannot locate the sponsor, the sponsor no longer exists, or the sponsor is unable to maintain the plan.

Clients and their financial professionals can find information about plans that are already in the Abandoned Plan Program system here.

MetLife drew attention to the problems companies have with administering old, potentially abandoned retirement plans earlier this year, when it noted that it had improved its efforts to locate pension plan participants and discovered that the increased accuracy of its participant counts had changed pension benefits obligation estimates.

MetLife said today, in a statement about the abandoned plan arrangement, that DOL officials had asked the company to help develop a way to ensure that participants in abandoned defined contribution plans get their benefits.

"Through this agreement, MetLife has a procedure, aligned with the DOL's policies and procedures, to help impacted participants stay financially protected throughout retirement," the company said.

— Read, also:

• JPMorgan, ADP to wind up 180 abandoned DC plans
• PenChecks Offers Abandoned Plan Service
• When Sponsors Abandon Their 401(k) Plans

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