"Lost" 401k?

Discussion in '401k, IRA and Retirement' started by PTrader, Jul 14, 2014.

  1. PTrader

    PTrader Member

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    I had a 401k many years ago at a company I quit working for an was subsequently sold to a larger conglomerate. I never cashed it out or rolled it into anything.

    Now I have just recently started a new 401k account with my new employer, and I am wondering how I go about finding this account? Does anyone here have any experience recovering an old 401k? I assume I should be able to roll that into my new one if I can find the information about it, is that correct?
     
  2. turt

    turt Guest

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    If they are still in business, they should have all of the old records for your account. Have you tried calling your old company?
     
  3. Penny

    Penny Well-Known Member

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    Either the employer or the holding company should be able to find this for you. If you do not want to contact the employer, look for any record of who the 401k was with. It is most likely a large financial company that is still in business under the same name. A simple search based on your tax identification number should bring it right up. It may be easier to go to a physical branch location with your ID than try and do it remotely.
     
  4. pwarbi

    pwarbi Senior Investor

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    As already mentioned, the 401 won't be held with the last employer but a separate financial company so they will be the ones to contact regarding this situation. Paperwork will have to be held for a certain number of years so as long as that time period hasn't run out, they should be able to provide all the details your looking for.
     
  5. Penny

    Penny Well-Known Member

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    As long as there is still money in the account it will still exist in some form, no matter how much time has passed.
     
  6. My401K

    My401K Well-Known Member

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    If the account went inactive or they were not able to find you it would be considered lost, in most states that has to be reported to the state and you could try searching your name on the states unclaimed funds database.

    I had a similar thing happen, I had a life insurance policy and some class action suit resulted in all the subscribers getting a certain number of common shares of stock. I had forgotten about this and when I searched my name on the database I was surprised that this came up. A nice find. Maybe you will be lucky and find that your 401K has done well, if it was very small and you had it around 2008 you might not have that much in it, if anything anymore. Even that is okay since you could take the loss as a tax offset perhaps.
     
  7. coloradogy

    coloradogy Active Member

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    As everyone has mentioned above, your old company/holding company must keep records of it. However, what they did with it is up in the air. If they tried to contact you and/or could not contact you, they may have converted it over to cash and out of funds or equities.

    Best case: You'll have to call around and find out that it's been sitting in an account accruing growth.

    Worst case: You'll still have to call around but instead of getting growth, your 401k will be all cash waiting for you.
     
  8. Corzhens

    Corzhens Senior Investor

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    I cannot relate to this 401K or maybe we are using different terms. Over here, we only have SSS - social security system - pension that we build with our contribution and part of it by the employer. It is handled by the government and compulsory enrolment for companies particularly the big companies. Over the years, the contribution is increased. From what I know, those who retired this year is getting around 12k pesos monthly pension - that's roughly $300 a good enough amount if the pensioner is living by himself.
     

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