Government agencies can assist with your “detective work”.

It’s easy to lose track of pension benefits you’ve earned, especially if you change jobs. What can you do once you’ve left an employer? Where can you turn?

Start with the employer, say officials at the federal Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA), which helps enforce federal pension laws and regulations. The PWBA is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. If you believe you have a pension coming to you, the PWBA says your best source of information is the company itself—or if it has changed hands, the successor company.

Mail the company a letter that includes your name, address, social security number, and as many details as you can recall about your work there and the retirement benefits you think you earned. There’s no specific PWBA form to send, although the employer may ask you to complete a form to begin receiving benefit payments or to help investigate your inquiry. It’s a good idea to keep a copy of the letter for your files. Send the original by certified mail so you’ve got proof that you requested the information.

If your former employer doesn’t reply within 30 days, contact the nearest PWBA office. The agency’s 15 regional and district offices (locations and phone numbers are listed at www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/contacts/folist.htm) are responsible for conducting investigations to detect civil and criminal violations of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), related Department of Labor regulations, and criminal laws that relate to employee benefit plans. If you don’t have Internet access, you can also check the white pages of your local telephone directory under U.S. Government, Department of Labor.

The PWBA’s Office of Enforcement, headquartered in Washington, DC, has oversight responsibility for implementing the agency’s investigative programs. If you prefer, you can write to this office (the mailing address is Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20210). If you contact the PWBA by mail, include a copy of the letter you sent to your former employer.

Another option is to contact the Division of Technical Assistance and Inquiries, located at the same Washington headquarters building (Room N-5619; phone number, 202-219-8776). That office assists the public with technical questions relating to pension, health, or other benefits offered by employers and protected by ERISA, COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986), and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

Here are some other points to keep in mind:

• As long as you earned a pension benefit under a plan’s rules (i.e., you worked enough hours or enough years), the plan must pay you benefits at some point, even if the company has changed hands and moved away.
• If you don’t know where your former employer is, check with former co-workers who may be receiving benefits. You can also check with your library, town hall, or secretary of state’s office for a current address of the company or its successor.

Another Federal Source
Another source for help in tracking down a former employer or securing your entitlement to pension benefits is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC). The PBGC is an independent U.S. government agency—not a part of the Department of Labor. The PBGC is a federal agency created by ERISA to insure and protect pension benefits in private traditional pension plans known as defined benefit plans. If your plan ends without sufficient money to pay all benefits, the PBGC’s insurance program will pay you a benefit. The PBGC’s financing comes mainly from insurance premiums paid by the companies whose plans the PBGC protects, not from taxes. Your plan is insured even if your employer fails to pay the required premiums.

The PBGC insures defined benefit plans, the type that promise to pay a specific monthly benefit at retirement. The PBGC does not insure retirement plans that do not promise specific benefit amounts, such as profit-sharing or 401(k) plans. The PBGC can’t help you track down this type of pension plan.

The PBGC maintains a directory of names of individuals who may be owed a pension benefit without knowing it. This directory is called the Pension Search Directory. The people listed in this directory are owed pension benefits but have not been located yet by the PBGC. You can search the PBGC automated database at the agency’s Web site (www.pbgc.gov). If you are on the list or are a survivor of a person listed, either call the PBGC at 1-800-326-LOST, contact the PBGC via e-mail (found@pbgc.gov), or write to the PBGC Pension Search Program, 1200 K St. NW, Washington, DC 20005, to receive an application for the pension benefit the PBGC may be holding for you.

If you believe that you earned benefits under a terminated defined benefit pension plan or you are the surviving beneficiary of someone who you believe is entitled to benefits but is not in the PBGC directory, you should first try to contact the pension plan administrator or the company that sponsored the plan. If the sponsoring company cannot be located, and you believe you are owed a benefit, write to the Pension Search Program at the address given, or by e-mail (missing@pbgc.gov).

Plan Terminations
Pension plans usually end for one of three reasons:

• the plan has enough money to pay all promised benefits and the employer wants to end the pension plan,
• the employer is having financial problems and can no longer support the plan, or
• the plan does not have enough funds to pay participants and the PBGC decides that the plan should be ended to protect the interests of participants in the PBGC insurance program.

Employers can terminate pension plans in one of two ways. In a standard termination, an employer ends a fully funded plan after showing the PBGC that there is enough money to pay all benefits. The plan will provide the benefits owed either by purchasing an annuity from an insurance company that will provide periodic payments for life or, if the plan allows, all at once in a lump sum. The PBGC’s guarantee ends when the employer purchases the annuities or otherwise pays the participants the value of their pensions.

In a distress termination, an employer ends a plan that does not have enough money to pay all of the benefits owed. The PBGC takes over the plan as trustee and uses its own assets and any remaining assets in the plan to make sure that current and future retirees receive their pension benefits, within certain legal limits.

The PBGC can terminate a pension plan on its own initiative if, for example, the plan does not have sufficient assets to pay benefits currently due. In a standard termination, you should receive a Notice of Plan Benefits describing the benefits you will receive.

In a distress termination, the plan administrator will send the PBGC information about your benefits. The PBGC will calculate your guaranteed benefit amount and inform you of it in writing. If you are already retired and receiving benefits, the pbgc will continue paying you during its review.

If you have not yet retired, the pbgc will pay you an estimated benefit when you become eligible. Once the PBGC completes its review, it will tell you in writing what your pension amount will be and what your appeal rights are. The pension benefit you receive from the PBGC will depend on

• the provisions of your plan,
• legal limits,
• the form of your benefit,
• your age, and
• the amount the PBGC recovers from the employers to compensate for plan underfunding.

The PBGC’s maximum benefit guarantee is set each year under provisions of ERISA. For pension plans ending in 2001, the maximum guaranteed amount is $3,392.05 per month ($40,704.60 per year) for a worker who retires at age 65. This guarantee is lower if you begin receiving payments before age 65 or if your pension includes benefits for a survivor or other beneficiary.

If you have questions about a pension plan that the PBGC has taken over or about the pbgc insurance programs and retirement guarantees, contact the PBGC’s Technical Assistance Branch (1200 K Street NW, Suite 930, Washington, DC 20005-4026; phone number, 202-326-4000).

Milton Zall is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, MD. He is a certified internal auditor and a registered investment adviser. Send your comments or questions regarding this article to tcaw@acs.org or the Editorial Office 1155 16th St N.W., Washington, DC 20036.