Lost Participants in Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans

Employers who sponsor retirement plans are reminded to implement procedures for dealing with former plan participants who leave their vested account balances in the plan long after they have separated from service with their employer. We previously issued a newsletter on this matter. We advised our readers that the Department of Labor (“DOL”) had commenced investigations of large defined benefit plans that had reported on Line 6 of their Form 5500 a significant number of retired or separated participants entitled to future benefits. This issue is applicable to both defined benefit and defined contribution plans.