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Finding Lost Retirement Money

Last update on: Jun 05 2020
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This article discusses the problem of people who lost track of 401(k) accounts and other retirement benefits. It explains how big the problem is and gives some advice on how to find if you are owed any money from a former employer.

If you don’t have any luck finding your 401(k) with your former employer — perhaps your employer has since gone out of business or was purchased by another company — there are a few more places to check.

If your old company was sold, contact the human resources department of the company’s new owner. Also try the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits, a free website founded more than two decades ago by PenChecks Trust to help locate plan participants who have dropped off the radar.

Even if your company no longer exists, your money still does. Check the abandoned plan database maintained by U.S. Department of Labor to track down the current trustee of your cash.

If the retirement benefits were through a traditional pension plan for a company that no longer exists, try the unclaimed pensions database of the U.S. Pension Guaranty Corp.

 

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