Is it possible that you or someone you know may be owed a pension benefit without knowing it? If you worked for a company, for as little as 5 years, in the past that went out of business or ended its defined benefit pension plan, you may still be entitled to pension benefits.

Many private pension plans are federally insured even if the company terminated its plan or filed bankrupcy, it is possible to retrive these unclaimed pensions. Although the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation which was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 has been successful in reuniting many people with their pensions, many people have not been located yet.

Former employees of certain companies, or their survivors, may be able to claim significant benefits as a result of a class action legal settlement. The benefits are payable under a 1996 settlement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), involving some 12,000 pension plans nationwide that were terminated between 1976 and 1981.

Workers in those plans who did not receive appropriate benefits are now entitled to them plus interest. Many thousands of missing workers identified thus far have received payments averaging between $10,000 and $12,000 as a result of the settlement with PBGC. However, thousands of employees or their surviviors have not yet been paid because they have not been located.

In 1966, a Pension Search Program was started to attempt to locate those entitled to unclaimed pension benefits. As of November 2004, there are still more than 20,000 individuals eligible to claim nearly $75 million have not been found. The average unclaimed pension benefit is approx. $3500.

There is very little effort by pension plan administrators to locate lost employees or their beneficaries for these unclaimed benefits. Also, over the years many companies have merged or been bought out by another company in which the pension obligations have been transferred to a successor company. To make matters worse, these unclaimed benefits are not likely to be covered in state unclaimed databases.

For a search in our current databases for all those who are owed a pension benefit and the database for companies and pension plans which have participants who cannot be located, order our Search and Report. (There is a $12.00 fee for this Service.)