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I was recently informed by the Social Security Administration that I "may" be entitled to some retirement benefits from a company I worked for in ... 1996. The company (which was publicly traded) is long gone - having changed its name several times and apparently was last seen being bought by a non-US company and probably just absorbed into its operations.

So ... I sent a letter to the address supplied by the SSA as the 401(k) Plan Administrator and it quickly got returned to me: "Return To Sender; Insufficient Address; Unable To Forward."

Is there some registry or list somewhere that would have a current list of 401(k) Plan Administrators with contact information, or a query mechanism, or some organization I could ask?

There was previously a question about "abandoned" plans, with an answer here that pointed to a database run by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) - that database is here. I tried my company's name (a few variations) on that database and came up empty. Perhaps the plan was not "abandoned" and hence isn't in there, or maybe it's under some name change (that the SSA doesn't know about)?

(BTW, the matter is stake is ... minor. I could buy a couple of nice books with it. I'm mainly interested because I only worked for this company 6months back then so what could be in my account there? And also, because, ... nothing wrong with getting a couple of nice books ...)

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    I would create a list of all spin-offs, mergers & acquisitions starting from your employment. Its possible that your old division was grouped in some corporate action and the 401k is now at some non-obvious company. E.g You were in Corp A which xfer-ed the plan to Corp B who was bought by Corp C. Then check the databases and/or write emails/letters. Due to uncertainty I would also check the unclaimed funds of the state when you were employed (I don't think the plan can release funds like that but it can't hurt to look).
    – Morrison Chang
    Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 3:37
  • Did you make 401(k) contributions back in 1996? Did you do anything with the account when you left? Why does the Social security administration think you have money in an old 401(k)?
    – mhoran_psprep
    Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 11:27
  • @mhoran_psprep - I don't remember making contributions when employed there, but I suppose I could have. I'm thinking it was some kind of profit sharing. When I left the company I never looked back ...
    – davidbak
    Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 15:15

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