A family member just went through the process of locating retirement plan accounts at two different employers. The employers changed providers and the million dollars of retirement assets were just sitting there. These were government plans, so ERISA wasn’t an issue for notices and required information.

If you have an ERISA plan, you know that you’re likely not providing the required notices for former employees. I will always say that when it comes to the two major plan audits I’ve had to handle, they came directly as a result of complaints from former employees.

I believe that as soon as people leave your employment, you develop a process to ensure that these former employees are reminded that they have an account balance and their opportunity to roll over plan assets.