Author: Steven Grieb

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Missing participants are a pain point for plan sponsors as they create a long-term liability for the plan, add to costs and incur fiduciary risk. The Department of Labor (DOL) is aggressively investigating the practices and procedures of plan sponsors for locating and distributing benefits to missing participants. In some cases, the DOL has asserted breaches of fiduciary duty for failure to perform regular searches for missing and unresponsive participants.

In January 2021, the DOL at long last posted best practices for finding those missing participants, and how to document the necessary steps taken. In January 2025, the DOL issued a temporary enforcement policy to allow plans to send, or escheat, small account balances for missing participants to a state's unclaimed property program.

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