You may be 'missing' thousands of dollars: Here's how to find forgotten 401(k) money (2024)

FAQs

You may be 'missing' thousands of dollars: Here's how to find forgotten 401(k) money? ›

The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits is a good place to start. By entering your Social Security number, you can quickly see if there are any unclaimed 401(k) funds that belong to you.

The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits is a good place to start. By entering your Social Security number, you can quickly see if there are any unclaimed 401(k) funds that belong to you.

By contacting your former employer, reviewing your old records, taking advantage of online resources, or searching among the many databases available, you can track down your retirement dollars and transfer them into an account where you can easily keep track of them.

The first report claimed that there was $1.35 trillion in “forgotten” 401(k) accounts—the latest iteration has upped that number to $1.65 trillion. That's right, $1.65 TRILLION.

If left unattended for too long, old accounts can be converted to cash—and even transferred to the state as unclaimed property—forgoing their future growth potential.

How long a company can hold your 401(k) depends on how much asset you have in the account: the company can hold for as long as you want unless you decide to rollover to a new plan or take a cash out. However, you must have at least $5000 in your 401(k) if you want the company to continue managing your plan.

But the money already in the account is still yours, usually, so it can just sit in that account for as long as you want — with a couple of exceptions: First, if you contributed less than $5,000 to that 401(k) while you were with that employer, they can legally tell you, “Closing time!

The National Registry is a public service website designed to help reunite you with your rightfully earned retirement benefits. We never charge a fee to list an account name on the site or to conduct a search or view the results of any search, and there is no limit to the number of times you may search.

You can find your IRA using your social security number, either by searching for the entity you opened the account with, navigating your state's treasury database, or hiring a company like Beagle to do the work for you.

Online resources such as missingmoney.com and unclaimed.org allow you to search for assets in any states in which you've lived or worked. And if you do find money from an old 401k that's owed to you, it's often as easy as filling out a simple online form to get it back.

Why did my old 401k disappear? ›

When you leave your job without rolling over the 401(k) to the new employer's 401(k) or IRA, the former employer may move the money to an unmanaged IRA of its choice.

As per the IRS, forfeitures can be utilized to reduce employer contributions, pay plan expenses, allocate to other participants in the plan, and/or restore previously forfeited accounts. Plan sponsors should use forfeitures in accordance with their plan documents.

About 69 million workers, or 56% of the nation's workforce, lack access to a retirement plan through their workplace, the Economic Innovation Group found in its analysis of 2021 Census data.

Generally, you have 4 options for what to do with your savings: keep it with your previous employer, roll it into an IRA, roll it into a new employer's plan, or cash it out. How much money you have vested in your retirement account may impact what decision you make.

Checking a 401(k) balance with your current employer should be easy if you have set up access to the plan's online portal. Once there, you can check your plan balance and other components of your plan. And if need be, you can make adjustments along the way.