DOL Seeks More Data to Launch Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database

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The Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration said Monday that it’s seeking more feedback from retirement plan administrators that will allow it to the launch a Retirement Savings Lost and Found database by Dec. 29.

The Secure 2.0 Act directed EBSA to establish a search tool to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find their retirement benefits by that date.

Retirement plans, including pension and 401(k) plans, sometimes lose track of retirement plan participants' owed benefits.

“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,” Labor said Monday.

The Retirement Savings Lost and Found database started accepting data Nov. 18 and is expected to go live by Dec. 29.

In response to public concern, Labor said it has narrowed the collection request from what was previously proposed. The information will help Labor establish and maintain the complete database contemplated by section 523 of ERISA.

Labor is seeking “basic information about individuals of a certain age who may be owed benefits under ERISA retirement plans.”

Specifically, EBSA states that it’s asking for the name and Social Security number of any participant who:

separated from service;
is owed a benefit from the plan; and
is 65 or older.

“The fundamental purpose of any job-based retirement plan is to pay promised benefits to the workers who participate in those plans and plan beneficiaries,” Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary for Employee Benefits Security, said in a statement.

“Our goal, which we believe plan sponsors and administrators and their service providers share, is to make sure that workers and their beneficiaries receive all the retirement benefits they earned and were promised through their working careers so that they can look forward to a secure and enjoyable retirement,” Gomez said.

The Retirement Savings Lost and Found database “will be another tool to help plans carry out this responsibility.” 

Credit: Mike Scarcella/ALM