Nevin's Data "Points"

Recent DOL guidance on missing participants seems to fall short of what plan fiduciaries want/need—but may offer fiduciaries some key insights to avoid future problems. On Jan. 12, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a triple dose of guidance  related to helping retirement plan fiduciaries meet their obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to distribute retirement benefits to missing participants. Arguably the guidance, while welcome, is less than plan sponsors might have wished (and previously asked ) for—and it concerns an issue that most plan sponsors of my acquaintance continue to insist isn’t one, though the Labor Department is clearly of a different mind. In fact, in the first of the three pieces of guidance, the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) cautions: “The first step in addressing any problem often is knowing that there is one.” [i] The “issue,” of course, is fulfilling the fiduciary obligation to ...

While it’s hardly a new topic, the subject of missing participants is much in the news today – and arguably a growing concern for plan sponsors, particularly with the expansion of automatic enrollment. Earlier this year the Government Accountability Office published a report – and some recommendations – on the subject of (re)connecting participants with their “lost” account balances. That report noted that from 2004 through 2013, more than 25 million participants in workplace plans separated from an employer and left at least one retirement account behind, “despite efforts of sponsors and regulators to help participants manage their accounts.” The report acknowledged that there are costs involved in searching for these “lost” participants, going on to note that there are no standard practices for the frequency or method of conducting searches. Once upon a time the IRS provided letter-forwarding services to help locate missing plan participants, but with the Aug. 31...