DOL’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database Goes Live

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration on December 27 launched the public Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database, a tool designed to help America’s workers and beneficiaries search for retirement plans that may still owe them benefits.

Created as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, the database serves as a centralized location where individuals or their beneficiaries can search for lost or forgotten retirement accounts and receive guidance on how to claim their funds. By inputting personal details such as name and Social Security number, users can locate accounts from previous employers, addressing a persistent challenge in the modern labor market.

“The Department of Labor has launched the Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database,” said a spokesperson for the DOL. “While the database has been launched, we hope that future improvements will result in higher data quality so retirement savings can be returned to America’s workers and retirees.”

Labor Turnover

Over recent decades, the average American’s career path has shifted significantly. According to a 2023 report from the Department of Labor, individuals born in the latter years of the Baby Boom (1957-64) held an average of 12.7 jobs between ages 18 and 56, with nearly half of these roles held from ages 18 to 24. Each job transition increases the risk of employees losing track of employer-sponsored retirement accounts, particularly when savings are not rolled over into new plans or individual retirement accounts.

Billions of dollars in unclaimed retirement savings remain idle across financial institutions and employers. Since 2017, EBSA enforcement efforts have recovered more than $7 billion in retirement benefits paid directly to missing participants and beneficiaries, the DOL reported in November.

Data Collection

To establish the Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database, the DOL at first turned to the IRS for data collected on Form 8955-SSA, Annual Registration Statement Identifying Participants with Deferred Vested Benefits. The IRS, however, did not provide this data to the DOL due to privacy laws in the Internal Revenue Code.

The Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs then approved, in November, an information collection request developed by EBSA under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This request allows EBSA to collect information from retirement plan administrators and their recordkeepers to populate and maintain the database.

“We encourage providers to respond to our voluntary request for information to help build a more robust database, and we will continue to work with our government partners to further improve the database,” said the DOL spokesperson.