Unclaimed Pensions and Cash Balance Pensions

Unclaimed pensions ...what a nice surprize that would be?

If you have ever left a job and forgotten to clean out your desk, you soon start missing little trinkets like that really good stapler, your favorite pen, or your three-hole-punch.

But when you left that job, you may have left behind something far more valuable. Did you know that you may have unclaimed pension funds that built up during your time of employment?

What is an Unclaimed pension?

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is holding $75 million for about 26,000 workers who did not cash out their pension funds when they left their jobs. The average amount in each account is about $3500. Most of these workers were young when they left, and were not knowledgeable about retirement plans, so they had no idea that the money was there. Others were employees of companies that moved, closed, or terminated their pension plans.

How do you find out if you have unclaimed pension funds that are rightfully yours?

There are two web-sites you can visit.

The first is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation web-site. Go to pbgc.gov.

On the nav bar (left hand side), click on the drop-down menu under “I am looking for…” then click on “Lost Pensions.”

The “Lost Pensions” page is easy to navigate. You can search by last name, by company name, or by the state where you were employed. Of course, if you are married, you should search under your maiden name as well as your married name.

If you have no luck doing the search, and you are pretty sure you have a claim to some pension funds with a former employer, there is a 30 page pdf document available that will lead you through a more in depth process for locating lost pension funds.

Download the document at this link unclaimed pensions
But before you start the more in depth search, go to the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. At the bottom of the page, click on the “Perform a Free Search” button.

This search is done using your social security number. If you are nervous about entering your social security number on the internet, it is probably better for you to download the document referenced in the previous paragraph.

There is no statute of limitations on claiming lost pensions, so do not think that time has run out for you.

You will never lose your unclaimed pension.

Companies are legally bound to report it, and the government is responsible for holding it. Even if you pass away, your heirs are entitled to it.

So, you may want to search for pension funds under the names of grandparents or other close relatives that are no longer with us.

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