Missing Participants Program News Today

The 4044/4050 tables are used to calculate withdrawal liability and missing participant program transfer amounts.

The tables are used for calculating withdrawal liability and missing participant program transfer amounts.

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. All too often, retirement plan administrators and benefits attorneys encounter situations with missing participants or uncashed checks that result in head scratching and exasperation. It is difficult to believe that trying to deliver money to someone could produce such frustration, but it happens more than one would think. In an attempt to alleviate some of these woes and help ensure that par...

The U.S. Department of Labor DOL recently issued important guidance for retirement plan sponsors and fiduciaries on their obligations to find missing participants

To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued important guidance (“Guidance”) for retirement plan sponsors and fiduciaries on their obligations to find missing participants entitled to retirement plan benefits. Retirement plan sponsors and fiduciaries are at greater risk given the uptick in missing participant audits by the DOL. (More information on missing participant audits is available here.) The Guidance generally a...

In the Best Practices of Pension Plans guidance, the DOL outlines “red flags” that may indicate that a retirement plan has a missing participant problem. This is the first time the DOL has published comprehensive guidance to assist plan fiduciaries with respect to missing participants. The Bottom Line In response to this guidance, employers and plan fiduciaries should review their internal retirement plan policies and procedures for locating missing participants and beneficiaries. They shou...

To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: On January 12, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a 3-part set of missing participant guidance for employer-sponsored retirement plans, addressing a variety of issues: Best practices for reducing missing participant populations; Explanation of the DOL’s goals and process in missing participant audits under the Terminated Vested Participant Project; and Authority for fiduciaries of terminating defined contribution plans to us...

To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: It is important to note that, since this guidance was issued in the late days of the Trump administration, the Biden administration will likely review this guidance. It is not uncommon for guidance to be delayed, revised, and/or rescinded as part of the review process. On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued new guidance on how employee benefit plans can connect with missing plan participants and retirees....

The Retirement Plan Best Practices Release summarizes what the DOL views as “best practices” for retirement plan fiduciaries navigating issues around missing participants, and “red flags” that the DOL views as indicators of retirement plan fiduciaries who have a problem with missing or nonresponsive participants. As such, the Retirement Plan Best Practices Release provides a framework for fiduciaries to consider in meeting their obligations to attempt to locate missing participants or o...