Finding a lost 401(k) now starts at Login.gov

The Labor Department's Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database is now open. Anyone who left benefits at an old job can search it through Login.gov, the federal identity portal. The search form asks for a Social Security number and date of birth; the identity check goes further, demanding a mobile device and a photo of a driver's license before it will return results.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration, which runs the database, says the identity check exists to keep personal information safe. It asks for a legal first and last name, date of birth, Social Security number, a mobile phone, and front-and-back photos of an active driver's license. Existing Login.gov users can use their accounts but may have to supply more information. Once verified, the site searches for retirement plans tied to that Social Security number.

The tool reaches only as far as the law lets it. It covers plans sponsored by private-sector employers and unions: defined-benefit pensions, which guarantee a monthly benefit for life or a lump sum at retirement, and defined-contribution accounts such as 401(k)s, in which employee contributions build up over a working career. It cannot find IRAs, government-sponsored plans, or plans maintained by certain religious organizations, and it holds no Social Security benefit information.

Eligibility is limited to people who earned a benefit under a qualifying private-sector or union plan. Public-sector workers are excluded, and Social Security records are not part of the search.

The registry can only give back what plans reported. If a former employer never submitted records, or submitted incomplete ones, the search comes up empty. The agency's announcement does not say how many plans participate or how much of the nation's stranded savings the registry covers.

The database is one of several SECURE 2.0 tools for money left behind when jobs change. Treasury and the IRS have proposed electronic-first rollover standards so plan-to-plan transfers no longer depend on paper checks. The Saver's Match program will put federal matching contributions into eligible savers' accounts. The match brings money in, the rollover rule keeps it with the worker, and the database tries to find what was already lost.

The hurdles are real. Requiring a mobile device and a photo of a current driver's license can shut out workers who do not drive, do not own a mobile device, or cannot easily photograph an ID. Those are often the same people most likely to have misplaced a modest 401(k) from a job they left years ago. The service could end up helping the organized and the digitally equipped while the rest stay lost.

A bigger gap is the money sitting in IRAs. Anyone who rolled an old 401(k) into an IRA is invisible to this system. The agency is explicit: the site cannot find IRAs. Because rollover IRAs are a common destination for old balances, the database will only ever see part of the money it was built to locate.

The registry carries benefits for plan sponsors, too. Each participant who finds an old balance is one fewer unclaimed obligation on a sponsor's books and one fewer account that might eventually fall to state unclaimed-property rules. The database does not change the legal duty to pay benefits, but it gives sponsors a place to point people and workers a place to look.

The tool still has value. Someone who remembers the employer but not the plan administrator can use it to reestablish contact. But it is only a starting point. The registry waits for a person to show up with documents in hand, and finding the money still requires a visit to Login.gov.