Forgotten Pension Funds
Having trouble making ends meet living on your retirement nest egg? You might be owed some pension money. A total of $133 million in retirement benefits haven't been claimed, the federal agency that insures private pension plans reports. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said 32,000 people are owed money. Individual benefits range from $1 up to $611,028.
Although the vast majority of workers receive their full pensions, sometimes people lose track of benefits earned with former employers. People who may have lost track of a pension earned during their career and think they may be owed retirement benefits can conduct a search using PBGC's online directory www.pbgc.gov/search. People can search by their last name, company name or state where the company was headquartered.
Over the past twelve years more than 22,000 people have found $137 million in missing pension benefits through PBGC's Pension Search program.
The states with the most missing pension participants and money to be claimed are: New York (6,885/$37.49 million), California (3,081/$7.38 million), New Jersey (2,209/$12.05 million) Texas (1,987/$6.86 million), Pennsylvania (1,944/$9.56 million), Illinois (1,629/$8.75 million) and Florida (1,629/$7.14 million).
Pension Search Directory
The PBGC insures pensions for 44 million workers and retirees. The Pension Search directory is regularly updated with the names of more missing people. The current list identifies some 6,600 companies, primarily in the airline, steel, transportation, machinery, retail trade, apparel and financial services industries that closed pension plans in which some former workers could not be found.
The online service is free and available 24 hours a day. For those without access to the Internet at home, many local public libraries, community colleges and senior centers make computers available to the public that can be used for searching the Pension Search directory.
The PBGC is a federal corporation created under Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. It currently guarantees payment of basic pension benefits earned by 44 million American workers and retirees participating in over 30,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. The agency receives no funds from general tax revenues.
Forgotten Pensions
Although it may seem unbelievable that people could forget about pension funds they own, it does happen. With so many now changing jobs frequently it's hard to keep track of retirement accounts.
If a company files for bankruptcy people may assume they have lost their pension when this is not necessarily the case. If an employer has filed for bankruptcy, that does not mean their pension plan has been terminated.
Before leaving a job make sure you get all the information about any retirement accounts you own and any pension funds you may qualify for. Never assume you lose those benefits when you leave.
Contact the plan administrator for details on your account. Most IRA accounts can be rolled into another IRA. Check with your accountant before moving any money from retirement accounts so you don't face a stiff penalty for early withdrawl.
