Guidance for Finding Missing Plan Participants
How many times have plan administrators been faced with the prospect of dealing with seemingly lost plan participants when terminating a plan? The US Department of Labor recently issued guidance for fiduciaries of terminated defined contribution plans who cannot find all plan participants to make final distributions. If a fiduciary is unable to locate a plan participant, the administrator may distribute the account according to the guidelines set forth in the DOL's bulletin. The bulletin sets forth several steps that a fiduciary can take to locate plan participants. Reasonable expenses associated with these search efforts may be charged to the participant accounts. These include:
- using certified mail,
- checking records of related employer plans,
- contacting a designated beneficiary and asking that beneficiary to forward information to the participant,
- using a government letter-forwarding service, or,
- using internet search tools or credit reporting agencies.
For further information, this bulletin is available here.