Workers who left a private-sector job with a 401(k) or pension behind can search for it through the Labor Department’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found database, a federal tool created by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. The search shows which plans have a record under the searcher’s Social Security number and who to call about each one. It does not say whether any money is left.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Labor Department agency that oversees private retirement plans, runs the site. Its page calls the tool “an information database only,” meaning it does not decide eligibility, process applications or pay benefits. Everything after the search happens between the former worker and the plan.
What the sign-in asks for
Searching starts with an identity check through Login.gov, the government sign-in service. The check asks for a legal name, date of birth and Social Security number, a mobile phone or a landline that is not an internet-based line, and front and back photos of an active driver’s license. The page says only a state-issued ID or driver’s license works for now, and passports and military IDs are not accepted.
The search covers only the Social Security number of the person signed in, and Labor Department staff cannot run it for anyone else. A person who cannot finish the phone verification cannot proceed, and the page offers no mail or post office alternative. Looking up a deceased spouse’s benefits is not supported yet.
Anyone who changed jobs several times, left a small 401(k) behind or worked for an employer that was later sold or closed is the person the tool is built for. The question to settle is whether an old plan still has a record under that Social Security number and which administrator holds it. The search takes one sitting, and a hit names the plan and an administrator to contact.
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The free search itself lives at the Labor Department’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found site, which lists the Login.gov steps. Help finding a former employer comes from people rather than the database. EBSA Benefits Advisors can help locate former employers or unions at AskEBSA.dol.gov or 1-866-444-3272, but they cannot see the database or a caller’s data.
Which plans are in the database and which are not
The database covers plans sponsored by a private-sector employer or a union, including traditional defined-benefit pensions and defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)s. The employer cannot be a government entity or a religious organization that is not taking part, and the person must qualify for benefits from the plan.
IRAs and Social Security benefits are outside the database. That leaves gaps worth knowing about before anyone signs in. A retired teacher, a former city worker or a federal employee will not find a state, local or federal pension here, and an old IRA sits with the bank or brokerage that opened it rather than with a plan.
What a match does and does not mean
A hit means the person participated in a plan at some point. It does not mean benefits are still owed, because the money may have been paid out, rolled over or turned into an annuity. Only the plan administrator can confirm whether anything remains.
The contact details come from Social Security Administration Form 8955-SSA filings that plans made over the years. The page warns they may be outdated and gives a 2005 filing as its example, since a plan may have merged or changed administrators since. A stale phone number is a reason to keep digging, not to stop.
After the list appears, the next step is to contact each plan administrator, who verifies identity and works out what the person may be owed. Having the Social Security number, the employer’s name and the rough years of work on hand shortens that call, because the administrator has to match the person to a record from long ago.
How the database came to exist
Congress told the Labor Department to build the database in the SECURE 2.0 Act, signed in 2022, to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find retirement benefits. EBSA began collecting plan data on Nov. 18, 2024, with plan administrators, recordkeepers and other service providers submitting information voluntarily ahead of public release, according to the department’s announcement.
Lisa M. Gomez, the Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security, said in that announcement that the database “will be another tool to help plans carry out” their responsibility to missing participants. The release adds that EBSA enforcement has recovered more than $7 billion in retirement benefits paid directly to missing participants and beneficiaries since 2017.
Privacy choices and fraud warnings
The data is encrypted, and the page says it is not shared with anyone else. A person who does not want to be searchable can opt out through an online form without Login.gov credentials, which blocks access to data tied to that name and Social Security number. The page describes an opt-in route that opens in 2025, and opting back in requires Login.gov verification, after which the information is searchable within about 48 hours.
The page also carries a fraud warning. The Labor Department will not call, text or email to ask for passwords, one-time passcodes or sign-in codes, and it charges no fee to recover funds. Anyone who gets a message offering to find a lost 401(k) for a price is not hearing from the department.
The separate PBGC search for ended pension plans
A second federal search covers a different pile of money. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the agency that takes over private pension plans that cannot pay, keeps retirement benefits it holds for people who were never paid when their plan ended. Its unclaimed retirement benefits search needs only a last name and the last four digits of a Social Security number.
PBGC updates the database quarterly, and its page lists an update on Nov. 3, 2026. A match is not confirmation of a benefit. It is the first step of a longer process in which the person must call PBGC and give more identifying details, and PBGC may tell the caller those details do not match.
Together the two searches cover most of what a former private-sector worker can lose track of: a plan that still exists and a plan that ended and passed its money to PBGC. Running both takes an afternoon and costs nothing. Neither settles a claim, which stays with the plan administrator or PBGC.
Missing a 401(k) from an old job?
A retirement plan from a job held decades ago can sit untouched because nobody sends a reminder. The Lost and Found search and the PBGC search each cover only part of where that money can be, and a name that turns up in one says nothing about the other.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System keeps the whole hunt in one place. It includes a 5-tab Excel tracker pre-filled with all 51 state unclaimed-property offices and the source vault of 12 official places money sits, so an old-plan search is logged alongside the state offices and other lists that hold forgotten money.
The tracker has room for each place searched, the date, the result and the next call to make, which matters when a retirement plan, a dormant bank account and an old refund all need follow-up.
Get the Excel tracker for old-job accounts and the 51 state offices →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
