Do you feel that you left money behind in an employer retirement plan from a previous employer?
If so, you may want to search the Department of Labor (DOL) Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database! The database, launched on December 27, 2024, is part of SECURE Act 2.0.
The DOL created this resource to help individuals search for retirement plans that may still owe them benefits. Workers who participated in previous employers' plans, as well as their beneficiaries, can search the database for funds they may have lost track of over time. Though it can be hard to imagine lost funds being out there, DOL studies show that younger "Baby Boomers" - born between 1957-1964 - held between 12 and 13 jobs, working about 6-7 jobs alone by their mid-twenties. The more jobs held, the greater the chance of forgetting about dollars saved into an employer retirement plan, especially if the money was not rolled into a new plan or some form of individual retirement account.
Although the database is up and running, it is still a work in progress and reliant on the data coming into it from retirement plan administrators and recordkeepers. The DOL anticipates that data quality will improve as more plan providers contribute information to the effort. However, if you received funds in the past (distributed or rolled over) from a former employer’s plan, but the recordkeeper or mutual fund company did not alert the DOL to this event, your search may turn up a disappointing "false positive" for you. Therefore, we recommend you check your records and/or annual tax filings to see if you did indeed receive what you were due from any former employer plans before you search the database.
If you believe you are missing retirement plan savings, are unsure, or simply have questions about the database, you can find more information here: https://lostandfound.dol.gov/ Please note that you will need a valid, ID-Proofed "Login.gov" account to access the Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database.