Treasury Issues New Guidelines On Searching For Missing Retirement Plan Participants

The US Department of the Treasury recently issued guidance that retirement plan sponsors should consider as part of their obligation to take reasonable steps to locate missing participants. Specifically, the Treasury issued a memorandum which sets forth guidelines that prohibit auditors from challenging qualified plans as failing to satisfy the required minimum distribution standards under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 401(a)(9) if the plan has fulfilled all of the following with respect to participants that cannot be located:

• Searched for alternative contact information in plan, plan sponsor and publicly available records for directories;
• Used a commercial locator service, credit reporting agency or a proprietary internet search tool for locating individuals; and