DOL Proposes Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database

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On April 16, 2024, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a proposed information collection request (“ICR”) to assist in the establishment of the Retirement Savings Lost and Found online database (“Database”). The Database is intended to connect missing participants and other individuals who have lost track of their retirement benefits with such benefits. The DOL was directed by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) 2.0 Act (“Act”) to create the Database by December 29, 2024. Significantly, the ICR indicates that DOL will rely on the voluntary participation of benefit plans for the data collection and reporting necessary to create the Database.

As background, Section 303 of the Act requires the DOL to create the Database, with a goal of allowing retirement savers who may have lost track of their retirement plan to search for the contact information of their former plan’s administrator in order to make a claim for benefits that they may be owed. While the DOL initially intended to use data collected from the Form 8955-SSA that plan administrators submit to the IRS to create the Database, it was prompted based on confidentiality concerns to seek voluntary participation from plan administrators. There does not appear to be any penalty for noncompliance with the proposed request.

The DOL is proposing that plan administrators provide the information requested by the ICR in an attachment to the 2023 Form 5500 Annual Return or 2023 Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return, as applicable (collectively “Form 5500”) when the Form 5500 is filed electronically. The ICR clarifies that, although the information would be submitted with the plan’s Form 5500, the attachment itself would not be considered part of the Form 5500 annual report filing for purposes of Title I of ERISA. The ICR requests the following information regarding a plan’s vested separated participants:

• Names and Social Security numbers;
• Contact information;
• Mailing addresses;
• Nature, form, and amount of vested benefit;
• The date and amount of distribution, if the vested benefit was fully paid in a form other than an annuity;
• The date of annuity commencement and monthly benefit amount, if paid in an annuity form of benefit; and
• Information about the participants’ designated beneficiaries.

Additional information is requested for plans that distributed benefits as an automatic rollover of an involuntary cashout under Code Section 401(a)(31)(b) and plans that distributed benefits under an annuity contract.

While the DOL currently intends for this information to be submitted with a plan’s Form 5500, it is also seeking to establish a portal through which plan administrators may submit the information directly into the Database.

The DOL is currently soliciting comments on the proposed ICR until June 17, 2024. Please contact us for more information.