Title 29, LaborRelease 119-110

§1153 Retirement Savings Lost and Found

Title 29 › CHAPTER 18 — EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY PROGRAM › SUBCHAPTER I — PROTECTION OF EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RIGHTS › Subtitle B — Regulatory Provisions › part 5 — administration and enforcement › § 1153

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Within two years after December 29, 2022, the Secretary, working with the Secretary of the Treasury, must create an online searchable database called the Retirement Savings Lost and Found. People can use it to find who runs a retirement plan and how to contact that person or entity for plans that must follow the vesting rules in section 1053. The Secretary can help someone find their plan and can update administrator contact details when plans merge, split, change names, go into bankruptcy, end, or otherwise change. Plan administrators must start sending the database certain tax-reporting details and the names and taxpayer ID numbers of participants in specific payout situations, plus account or contract numbers when money or annuities were paid out, starting for plan years that begin after the second December 31 following this subsection’s enactment. The information can only be used to help people find their plans, and only by Department of Labor staff who need it for that purpose. The database must protect personal data and let anyone opt out of being listed. The Labor Department’s Inspector General will audit the program each year for the first five years (starting one year after the database is set up) and then every five years, and will report those audit results to the named Senate and House committees.

Full Legal Text

Title 29, §1153

Labor, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment
(1)In general
Not later than 2 years after December 29, 2022, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall establish an online searchable database (to be managed by the Secretary in accordance with this section) to be known as the “Retirement Savings Lost and Found”. The Retirement Savings Lost and Found shall—
(A)allow an individual to search for information that enables the individual to locate the administrator of any plan described in paragraph (2) with respect to which the individual is or was a participant or beneficiary, and provide contact information for the administrator of any such plan;
(B)allow the Secretary to assist such an individual in locating any such plan of the individual; and
(C)allow the Secretary to make any necessary changes to contact information on record for the administrator based on any changes to the plan due to merger or consolidation of the plan with any other plan, division of the plan into two or more plans, bankruptcy, termination, change in name of the plan, change in name or address of the administrator, or other causes.
(2)Plans described
A plan described in this paragraph is a plan to which the vesting standards of section 1053 of this title apply.
(b)Administration
The Retirement Savings Lost and Found established under subsection (a) shall provide individuals described in subsection (a)(1) only with the ability to search for information that enables the individual to locate the administrator and contact information for the administrator of any plan with respect to which the individual is or was a participant or beneficiary, sufficient to allow the individual to locate the individual’s plan in order to make a claim for benefits owing to the individual under the plan.
(c)Safeguarding participant privacy and security
In establishing the Retirement Savings Lost and Found under subsection (a), the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall take all necessary and proper precautions to—
(1)ensure that individuals’ plan and personal information maintained by the Retirement Savings Lost and Found is protected; and
(2)allow any individual to contact the Secretary to opt out of inclusion in the Retirement Savings Lost and Found.
(d)Definition of administrator (e) Information collection from plans
For purposes of this section, the term “administrator” has the meaning given such term in section 1002(16)(A) of this title.
(f)Use of information collected
The Secretary—
(1)may use or disclose information collected under this section only for the purpose described in subsection (a)(1)(B), and
(2)may disclose such information only to such employees of the Department of Labor whose official duties relate to the purpose described in such subsection.
(g)Program integrity audit
On an annual basis for each of the first 5 years beginning one year after the establishment of the database in subsection (a)(1) and every 5 years thereafter, the Inspector General of the Department of Labor shall—
(1)conduct an audit of the administration of the Retirement Savings Lost and Found; and
(2)submit a report on such audit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Committee on Education and Labor of House of Representatives changed to Committee on Education and the Workforce of House of Representatives by House Resolution No. 5, One Hundred Eighteenth Congress, Jan. 9, 2023.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

29 U.S.C. § 1153

Title 29, Labor

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110