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ARTICLE · 21 APRIL 2021

Key Takeaways From The DOL's "Best Practices" Missing Participant Guidance

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All too often, retirement plan administrators and benefits attorneys encounter situations with missing participants or uncashed checks that result in head scratching and exasperation.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Hillary E. August
Hillary E. August
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All too often, retirement plan administrators and benefits attorneys encounter situations with missing participants or uncashed checks that result in head scratching and exasperation. It is difficult to believe that trying to deliver money to someone could produce such frustration, but it happens more than one would think. In an attempt to alleviate some of these woes and help ensure that participants and their beneficiaries receive the retirement benefits due to them, the Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) came out with three related pieces of guidance on January 12, 2021: (1) a set of Best Practices for Pension Plans (the "Best Practices"), describing steps that plan fiduciaries can take to reduce missing participant issues; (2) Compliance Assistance Release No. 2021-01, outlining the investigative approach that guides the DOL's regional offices under its Terminated Vested Participants Project; and (3) Field Assistance

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