EBSA Announcement of Voluntary Information Collection Request: Retirement Savings Lost and Found, 89 Fed. Reg. 91787 (Nov. 20, 2024); Fact Sheet: Retirement Savings Lost and Found Information Collection Request (Nov. 18, 2024)
The DOL has announced that it is collecting information from retirement plan administrators to populate the Retirement Savings Lost and Found online searchable database required by ERISA § 523 (added by the SECURE 2.0 Act). The database, which is intended to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find unpaid retirement benefits, is expected to be available to the public by December 29, 2024 (the statutorily required date). While providing the information is voluntary, the DOL explains that it needs plan administrators, recordkeepers, and other service providers to work together to populate the database, asking plan administrators to submit information (or authorize their service providers to do so), and to promote the database, as soon as possible.
Information is collected via an Intake Portal. The DOL has provided a sample upload template with instructions. Information to be collected includes details about the plan and plan administrator, along with names and Social Security numbers of separated vested participants who have reached age 65 and are owed vested benefits, including deceased participants who would have been age 65 or older if they had survived and whose beneficiary is entitled to a benefit. (The database will include user authentication measures, and there is a mechanism for individuals to opt out of inclusion.) To avoid false positives after a listed participant has received a distribution, the template includes fields to indicate that a benefit has been paid (and the payment date); this information will be displayed when searchers run queries in the database. The DOL asks plan administrators to submit information at least annually and encourages more frequent updates.
The DOL specifies that, by providing information in accordance with the database submission instructions, plan fiduciaries will satisfy fiduciary obligations to mitigate cybersecurity risks and promote participants’ and beneficiaries’ interests in securing promised benefits. Additionally, such plan fiduciaries will not be subject to liability under ERISA for the DOL’s conduct in the event of a future security failure involving the database. The fact sheet also addresses the intersection of fiduciary duties and state privacy law concerns. Also, in the DOL’s view, the reasonable cost of reporting this information is a permissible use of plan assets.
EBIA Comment: The DOL notes that it has worked closely with the IRS and the Social Security Administration to gather information needed to populate the database, but that additional efforts are needed to meet the required timeframe. The inclusion of fiduciary and plan asset guidance may be intended to encourage compliance by alleviating plan administrators’ concerns on those issues. The related news release emphasizes the DOL’s goal, which it believes is shared by plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers, of ensuring that workers and their beneficiaries receive “benefits they earned and were promised through their working careers.” For more information, see EBIA’s 401(k) Plans manual at Section XII.J (“Missing or Unresponsive Participants”).
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