Database Lists Millions in Unclaimed Retirement Benefits

“This is for over 58,000 missing participant retirement accounts. The average account balance is about $2,600.00,” said Peter Preovolos, president and CEO of PenChecks, Inc., in a press release. Often an employee changes jobs, moves, and fails to leave a forwarding address, and their account balance or accrued benefit in a qualified retirement plan stays behind with their former employer, the company said.

PenChecks developed The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits—a nationwide, secure database service that can match missing participants with their unclaimed retirement benefits at former employers, according to the release.

Any organization holding retirement funds for missing participants can register online for free and create an account to add the missing participant records to the database. When one of those participants performs a free search in the database, the organization receives an automatic e-mail notification.