DOL Issues Proposed Information Collection Request on Retirement Savings Lost and Found; Comments Due June 17

Published April 15, 2024

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued a proposal to collect information voluntarily in order to establish the Retirement Savings Lost and Found online searchable database described in section 523 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and to connect missing participants and other individuals who have lost track of their retirement benefits with such benefits. 

DOL seeks voluntary participation in the proposed information collection request. DOL had planned to use data that plan administrators submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Form 8955-SSA (Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants With Deferred Vested Benefits). However, citing concerns under section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), IRS has now indicated that it will not authorize the release of this data to DOL for the purpose of communicating either directly with participants and beneficiaries about retirement plans that may still owe them retirement benefits or indirectly through the Retirement Savings Lost and Found online searchable database.

The notice proposes to request that plan administrators (or their authorized representatives, such as recordkeepers) voluntarily provide information directly to DOL with respect to:

  • Plans With Separated Vested Participants
  • Plans That Distributed Benefits Under Section 401(a)(31)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code
  • Plans That Distributed Annuities
To minimize public burden, plan administrators (or their authorized representatives, such as recordkeepers) will be able to electronically submit the data described in the proposed information collection request as an attachment to this year’s EFAST2 filing. Multiple security measures will be in place to protect plan participant and beneficiary data (i.e., Social Security numbers) in DOL's Lost and Found online searchable database.

Comments are due June 17, 2024.

News Release