401kHunter

Free lookup · U.S. DOL Form 5500 data

Find an old 401(k) from a former employer

Your money isn’t lost. Search the employer to see what happened to its plan, get the details every lookup asks for, and use the free registries to find where the balance went.

4,202 closed-and-paid-out plans have a page, plus every plan in the public Form 5500 index. Or browse closed plans by state.

How to track it down

  1. 1

    Search the employer

    Type the company name above. If the plan was closed and paid out, you will land on a page with the plan’s exact name, EIN, plan number, recordkeeper, and what the final filing reported.

  2. 2

    Contact the recordkeeper

    The firm that sent your statements (Fidelity, Empower, Vanguard, Principal…) still has the account history. Give them the plan name and EIN from the page and ask where your balance was sent.

  3. 3

    Check the government registries

    The Department of Labor runs two free lookups, and employers list undeliverable balances on a national registry. Uncashed checks often end up with your state’s unclaimed property office.

  4. 4

    Decide where it should go

    Once you know where the money is, you have options: leave it, roll it to your current plan, roll it to an IRA you choose, or take it as cash (usually taxable). Each has trade-offs; none is right for everyone.

Free places to look

Largest closed plans

Browse closed plans by state

California 569New York 374Illinois 233Pennsylvania 232Texas 202Florida 200Massachusetts 187New Jersey 174Ohio 153Michigan 152Maryland 108Minnesota 105Washington 103Wisconsin 98Virginia 98North Carolina 86Connecticut 79Georgia 76Missouri 69Colorado 62Arizona 62Tennessee 58Indiana 54Oregon 49Kentucky 48Louisiana 43Iowa 40Alabama 39South Carolina 37Kansas 36Delaware 32Rhode Island 29Oklahoma 29Utah 27District of Columbia 26New Hampshire 24Nebraska 22Vermont 21West Virginia 21Arkansas 19Maine 19Hawaii 16Mississippi 15South Dakota 14Idaho 13Montana 10Nevada 9Alaska 9New Mexico 8Wyoming 5North Dakota 4Puerto Rico 3VI 1

Common questions

Can a former employer keep my 401(k) money?

No. Money you contributed is always yours, and employer contributions you were vested in are too. When a plan closes, federal law requires every balance to be paid out or moved to an account in your name. The most common problem is not that the money is gone but that it was moved somewhere you have never looked.

What happens to a 401(k) when a company goes out of business?

The plan is terminated. Every participant becomes fully vested, and the plan must pay out all balances. Participants receive notices asking where to send the money; balances of people who do not respond are usually moved to a safe-harbor IRA in their name. Even in a bankruptcy, plan assets are held in trust separately from the company and are not available to its creditors.

What is a safe-harbor IRA?

An individual retirement account a plan is allowed to open in your name, without your involvement, to hold a balance you did not give instructions for when the plan closed. It is still your money and still tax-deferred, but these accounts are usually invested in cash or a money-market fund and charge maintenance fees, so the balance tends to sit still or shrink until you move it.

How do I find a 401(k) from a job I had years ago?

Start with the employer name search above. Then contact the plan’s recordkeeper with the plan name and EIN, and check the Department of Labor’s Retirement Savings Lost & Found and Abandoned Plan Search, the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits, and your state’s unclaimed property office. Old tax returns (Form W-2, box 12 code D) and old statements also show which years you contributed.

Is this free?

Yes. The employer pages and every registry linked here are free. The plan facts come from public U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings. On some pages a licensed financial advisor offers a free follow-up call; that is optional and is clearly labelled as their advertisement.

Plan figures come from public U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings. This page is educational and is not investment, tax, or legal advice.