Does a prior employer owe you benefits?

Search the Department of Labor’s “lost and found” database for missing IRAs. Photo by Jan Alexander/Pixabay

By Elliot Raphaelson
Posted on August 22, 2025

For many years, the Pension Retirement Center (PRC), a nonprofit organization, has provided services at no cost related to individual retirement plans.

The center has encouraged the development of a database of information about benefits that employees are entitled to from previous retirement plans. As a result of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, the Department of Labor created such a database.

If you believe you are entitled to assets in a retirement plan from prior employment, it is to your advantage to access this “lost and found” database at lostandfound.dol.gov.

Currently, the database, known as Retirement Savings Lost and Found, includes information provided by retirement plan administrators and authorized third parties, such as plan record keepers.

The information filed should identify the separated, vested participants who are age 65 or older and may be owed benefits. It can also contain information regarding survivor benefits.

To access the database, you’ll be required to provide your legal first and last name, your date of birth, your Social Security number, a copy of the front and back of your driver’s license, and have the use of a mobile device. If you don’t have access to a mobile device, there are alternative methods (see Login.gov).

After providing that information, you will be able to access information from the database, after specifying an email address and a language preference, assenting to a “rule of use” agreement, and following authentication procedures.

You would enter your employer’s name into what is known as a WOW application, and do a search to see if information from your former employer is in the database.

Ed Note: According to the Department of Labor, the website can’t help you find individual retirement accounts (IRAs) or plans sponsored by government entities or certain religious organizations. It only allows you to search for reported retirement benefits provided by private-sector employers or unions. Additionally, the website does not include information about Social Security benefits.

Where to ask for help

It is possible that some information in the database is obsolete, and you have already received all the compensation you were entitled to.

If you believe you were entitled to compensation from a prior retirement account, and that information is not contained in the database, you still can use the services of PRC to assist you.

You should ask a PRC representative if there is an ongoing pension counseling project available in which you could receive free legal assistance.

If you are not located within a pension counseling project service area, you may be able to obtain free legal assistance from the Pension Help America website (pensionhelp.org or 1-888-420-6550).

If none of those options are available, you can fill out a form available at PRC (pensionrights.org), specifying a statement of your problem and actions you have already taken.

Bottom line: Even if the Department of Labor database does not contain information regarding assets you believe you are entitled to from prior retirement accounts, you can receive support from PRC with other alternatives.

Elliot Raphaelson welcomes your questions and comments at raphelliot@gmail.com.