§1350 Missing Participants

Summary

When a retirement plan ends and the plan manager cannot find a participant, the manager must either move that person’s single-sum benefit to the federal corporation or buy an unchangeable insurance promise for it. The manager must also give the corporation whatever information and certifications the corporation asks for. Money moved to the corporation is treated like assets from a ended plan and kept with other ended-plan assets. If the missing person is later found, the corporation will pay them. If the plan could have paid a single sum without needing consent, the corporation pays that single sum plus interest set by the corporation. In other cases, the corporation pays an amount worked out using the corporation’s rules, and it must offer the same payment forms and timing that a guaranteed benefit would have, though it may pay a single sum if the plan allowed one. The corporation must set similar rules for multiemployer plans. A missing participant means a person or beneficiary the plan manager cannot find after a careful search. A designated benefit means the single-sum amount the person would get under the plan or under the corporation’s rules, depending on the plan. Some pension plans that meet certain listed conditions may choose to transfer missing participants’ benefits to the corporation when they end. For those plans, the manager must follow regulations about what information to send. If the corporation received benefits for a located person, it will pay either a single sum (plus interest) or another form the corporation’s rules allow. The corporation must write rules that explain what counts as a diligent search and how to figure the amounts to transfer and to pay. Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(3) do not apply to the special plans described.