The IRS recently issued Rev. Proc. 2012-35, revising the scope
of the IRS letter-forwarding program. The revenue procedure
provides that the IRS will no longer forward letters on behalf of
plan sponsors or administrators of qualified retirement plans or
qualified termination administrators (QTAs) of abandoned plans
under the Department of Labor's Abandoned Plan Program who are
attempting to locate missing plan participants and
beneficiaries.
According to the IRS, since the IRS letter-forwarding program
began, numerous alternative missing person locator resources have
become available to assist a plan sponsor or plan administrator in
locating a missing participant or beneficiary who is owed a
retirement benefit, thus enabling the program change. In
particular, this change affects retirement plan sponsors and
administrators who are searching for plan participants or
beneficiaries to correct failures that require payment of
additional benefits in accordance with the
