Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database: How to Search It

The Retirement Savings Lost and Found is a free federal search that lists old workplace retirement plans tied to your Social Security number. Here's what you need before you sign in, what the search shows, and what to do with a result.

What is the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database?

It's a search tool built by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the part of the Labor Department that oversees workplace retirement plans. Congress ordered it in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 and gave the department two years to set it up.

People change jobs, move, and lose track of a plan from twenty years back. Companies get sold and renamed. The database gives you one place to ask a single question: which private retirement plans have a record of me?

The Labor Department is plain about the limits of the answer. In its words, the system is "an information database only." It doesn't decide whether you're owed anything, process a claim, or pay a benefit. It points you to the people who can.

What it covers and what it doesn't

You can search only your own Social Security number. There's no way yet to look up a spouse who has died, though the department says it's exploring that. Labor Department staff can't run the search for you either. Federal law restricts access to the person the records belong to.

What you need before you start

The site lists five things:

• Your legal first and last name
• Your date of birth
• Your Social Security number
• A mobile device
• Photos of the front and back of an active driver's license

A state-issued ID card works in place of a driver's license. A U.S. passport or military ID doesn't. The department says it's working on adding both.

No mobile phone? You can still get through with a landline, as long as it isn't an internet (VoIP) line.

One requirement trips people up. Login.gov checks that your phone number is tied to you in public records. If the number is new, or it's in someone else's name, that step can fail. For this site there's no mail-in or post office alternative when it does.

How to use the Retirement Savings Lost and Found, step by step

1. Type the address yourself. Go to lostandfound.dol.gov. Don't follow a link from an email or text.
2. Choose the Login.gov sign-in button. You'll be sent to Login.gov, the federal government's shared sign-in service. An account you already have from another agency works, though you may be asked for more information.
3. Create the account if you don't have one. You'll set a password and pick a second sign-in method, such as a code sent by text or phone call.
4. Verify your identity. Upload the front and back photos of your license or state ID, enter your Social Security number, and confirm your phone. Take the photos in good light, flat on a table, so your name and address are easy to read.
5. Return to the Lost and Found. Once you're verified, Login.gov sends you back to the Labor Department's site.
6. Enter your Social Security number again and select Search.
7. Read your results. You'll see a list of retirement plans linked to your number, with contact information for each plan administrator.

What a result means and what to do with it

A plan on your list means you were in that plan at some point.

You may have been paid out when you left. You may have rolled the money into an IRA in 2009 and forgotten the plan's name. The benefit may have been turned into an annuity. Only the plan administrator can tell you whether anything is still owed.

Calling the plan administrator

Have these in front of you: your Social Security number, the years you worked there, the name you used then, and your address at the time. Then ask:

• Do you show a benefit or balance for me?
• How much is it, and how is it invested?
• If it was paid out, on what date, for how much, and where was it sent?
• What forms do you need from me to update my address or claim it?

Expect them to verify your identity before answering.

If the phone number is dead

Much of the database comes from old filings that plans sent to the government over the years on a form called Form 8955-SSA. The department's own example is a 2005 filing that doesn't reflect a later merger or a new administrator. It's collecting fresher details from plans now.

A stale contact still gives you the plan's name, and that's enough to keep going. Our guide to finding an old 401(k) shows how to trace a plan through its public annual reports and what to do if the company is gone.

Why your search might come up empty

No result doesn't prove there's no money. Common reasons for an empty list:

• The plan isn't a kind the database covers. You worked for a school district, a city, the federal government, or a church employer.
• The money already left the plan. A small balance may have been moved to an IRA in your name, and IRAs aren't searchable here.
• The plan had no reason to report you. The old filings were meant for people who left a job with a vested benefit still sitting in the plan. If you were cashed out on your way out the door, or never vested, there may be no record.
• The records are incomplete. The database depends on what plans have sent in, and the department is still adding to it.
• You opted out. The site lets people remove their information from the search. You can opt back in after verifying your identity, and the department says your records become searchable again in about 48 hours.

If you couldn't get in at all because of the ID or phone check, skip the database and call your former employer's benefits office directly. That's the department's own advice.

How to avoid look-alike sites and scams

A few checks keep you on the real site.

• The address ends in .gov: lostandfound.dol.gov. The sign-in page is on login.gov.
• The search is free. So is claiming your money. The department's words: it "does not charge a fee to recover funds." Anyone asking for payment to release a benefit on the government's behalf is lying.
• It will never ask for your password, a one-time code, or a code from an authentication app, by phone or any other way.
• It won't ask you to share your screen or let someone control your computer.

Other places to look

The Lost and Found is the first stop. It isn't the only one. Old plans also leave tracks in the government's Form 5500 filings, the abandoned plan database, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's list of unclaimed benefits, and state unclaimed property offices. We cover each of those, in the order we'd check them, in how to find an old 401(k), even if the company is gone.

EBSA's benefits advisors help people locate a former employer or plan administrator at no charge, through askebsa.dol.gov or 1-866-444-3272. They can't see the database or your search results, so bring the plan name if you have one.

What to do with the money once you've found it

Give the administrator your current address, phone, and email, and name a beneficiary.

Then decide where the money should live. Say the administrator confirms $18,000 in a 401(k) from a job you left in 2011. You can leave it where it is, move it into your current employer's plan if that plan takes roll-ins, or move it into an IRA. Cashing out is the expensive fourth choice: the whole amount is taxed as income, and a 10% penalty can apply if you're under 59½.

Our guide to your choices for an old 401(k) compares them side by side. If you move it, ask for a direct rollover so the check is never made out to you. Rollover vs. transfer explains why that matters, and the rollover checklist lists the steps in order.

One account you watch beats three you've forgotten.

Common questions

Is the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database legitimate?

Yes. The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration runs it at lostandfound.dol.gov, under a requirement in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.

Does the Retirement Savings Lost and Found show how much money I have?

It shows the plans linked to your Social Security number and how to reach each plan administrator. A listing doesn't mean a benefit is still owed. The administrator is the one who can tell you whether there's a balance and what it is.

Can I use a passport to verify my identity?

Not yet. As of October 2026 the site accepts only a Login.gov account verified with a U.S. state-issued driver's license or ID. The department says it's working on adding passports and military IDs.

Can I search for my late spouse's retirement plans?

No. You can search only your own Social Security number. For a spouse who has died, contact their former employers or unions directly. An EBSA benefits advisor at 1-866-444-3272 can help you find them.

Will it find my old IRA?

No. IRAs aren't in the database, including IRAs that an old plan opened for you when it closed out a small balance. Our guide to finding an old 401(k) covers how to trace those.

We base our guides on primary sources such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and federal regulators. Read our editorial policy. Spot an error? Tell us.