Effective 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration ESBA launched a website Retirement Savings Lost and Found database that allows to search for unpaid retirement benefits. Note that the retirement plan administrators will provide this information on a voluntary basis (at least, initially) so it is not a comprehensive database in this early stage.
There are several scenarios were this tool might be extremely useful, such as change of jobs, merges of businesses, or company closing or going out of business. Using this tool, participants and/or beneficiaries might find retirement plan benefits that they forgot or they were not aware. Keep in mind that .
This initiative is quite relevant as “… Since 2017, EBSA’s enforcement efforts have recovered more than $7 billion in retirement benefits for missing participants and beneficiaries.”
It is probably worth taking a look if you are unsure if you might be missing any of your retirement plan benefits.
Link DOL – Fact Sheets
Link Federal Register – Retirement Savings Lost and Found
