The Department of Labor needs to amend its rules regarding missing retirement plan participants to include beneficiaries as well.
So says the ERISA Advisory Council, which believes that when a defined contribution plan is terminated, fiduciaries for the plan should make every effort to find either the missing participant or their beneficiaries.
The council also would like the DOL to spell out the fiduciary obligations plan sponsors have to locate missing and nonresponsive participants in active and frozen retirement plans.
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The council plans to recommend to the DOL that if plan participants do not respond to notices or retirement distribution checks from a retirement plan, the plan sponsor should be able to put those funds in a forfeiture account.
The plan can then determine whether to restore those funds if the missing participants or their beneficiaries come to claim the assets at a later time.
The council received testimony on this issue through August and plans to finalize its recommendations at its Nov. 4-5 meeting.
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