By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell, Next Avenue
A friend with whom I had previously worked with instant-messaged me on Facebook a couple of years ago and asked, “Hey, have you applied for your pension?”
We had worked together 35 years ago in the credit department of a major bank. I replied, “Pension? We get a pension?” She told me another friend with whom we worked had told her about it. She learned if we wanted to settle our pensions and take a lump sum, we could do so any time. If we wanted a monthly payment for life, we’d have to wait until we turned 60.
I contacted the number my friend gave me and was told I could retrieve my money in a one-time payout or a fixed monthly payment for the rest of my life. I chose the latter and was sent paperwork to hold onto for a year, which would be six months before my 60th birthday.
Retirement Was Not on My Mind
When I was “JD’d” (the bank’s abbreviation of “job discontinuation”) from that employer, I left the corporate world for a life of freelance writing. I rolled my 401(k) into an IRA and figured I was on my own in retirement.
I was only 34 when I left the job; building my business and achieving my dreams were my immediate concerns. Retirement was the furthest thing from my mind.
Still, as a responsible person with an outstanding credit record who reconciles my bank account online at the end of each week, why didn’t I remember my 10-year tenure at the bank also provided a pension?
Forgotten Savings Are Not Uncommon
As it turns out, I wasn’t alone. While my friend had also taken her 401(k) when she left the bank, she didn’t realize there was a pension waiting for her until another former employee told her.
“Most people move around from job to job during their working years,” says Imrana Begg, executive director for Experior Financial Group. “Data suggests that many people hold a dozen or more jobs during their life and when they leave those jobs, they just move on and forget about their retirement accounts. Then they move or marry and if the company sends paperwork, it never reaches them.”
Pensions, once common in the U.S., were phased out by many private companies in the 1970s and 80s, due to rising costs to fund and manage assets used to pay benefits. Many private, non-union companies started placing the burden of retirement savings on workers by offering a 401(k), which were sometimes matched and typically invested in broad stock funds.
Money Magically Appears
Christian Brim, 53, says five years ago, his then 70-year-old mother received a letter about a forgotten pension plan linked to a job she once held with the state. “She thought it may be a scam,” says Brim, who lives in Oklahoma City. “She went ahead and cautiously reached out to the company holding the pension.”
Brim says that call basically changed her financial life. “She was just barely scraping by in retirement and although she missed the deadline to claim the lump sum, she was able to claim almost $1,000 per month.”
While fewer employees qualified for pensions and worked in the private sector after the 1970s and ’80s, they may get lucky as my friend and I did. However, Begg says workers should not wait for employers and pension companies to find them. She suggests making a list of former employers and contacting them to make sure they didn’t qualify for a pension.
401(k)s Most Likely Left Behind
According to Capitalize, a company that offers an online platform to find lost 401(k) accounts and roll them over, there are 29.2 million forgotten 401(k) accounts holding $1.65 trillion in assets. Since the global COVID pandemic triggered the “Great Resignation” of the early 2020s, forgotten 401(k) accounts have increased over 20%.
Begg says if you are past retirement age or nearing it and think you may have a forgotten 401(k), it is prudent to contact former employers and ask if you left behind any retirement assets. If so, roll over the assets — that is, have the assets transferred to another tax-deferred account — as soon as possible.
“If it is a forgotten 401(k), it’s likely it’s still sitting in the (stock) market,” Begg says, “and if you’re older, you probably don’t want to leave it in a volatile market.”
Begg says if you do find assets you didn’t know you had, talk to a financial advisor about transferring them to a 401(k) account at your new employer, rolling them into an IRA or possibly investing in an annuity.
A Good Place to Look
Brim says when his aunt saw his name on a list for unclaimed property through the state, he found $1,200 he’d left in an IRA. “I forgot it even existed,” he says. Brim was able to claim the money.
State unclaimed property websites can also help you find other lost money, including cash gathering dust in forgotten bank accounts, annuity payouts, stock dividends, utility deposits and other sources.
My pension amounts to less than $300 a month, but it is enough to make a difference in my budget. In researching this story, I also found money in my late husband’s 401(k) that I wasn’t aware of when he died and remembered long-forgotten savings bonds I purchased and stashed away while working my first job in my teens and early 20s. Finally, I’ve found six unclaimed assets through the state in either my late husband’s or my name.
None of it will make me rich, but every little bit helps, especially when we’re nearing or in retirement.
Online Guide to Missing Assets
This government website may help lead you to databases to search for forgotten pensions, VA benefits, taxes, investments, savings bonds and bankruptcies.