Worried about a missing pension or 401(k)? Here's where you can get help

Randy Sigley, 63, who grew up in West Virginia, remembers that jobs were hard to come by in the mid-1970s so he headed to Ohio to work in a factory making concrete pipe.

He got that job about a year out of high school and made sure to hold onto it at least 10 years because he always heard that he'd qualify for a pension if he stayed that long.

But decades later when he tried to collect that pension, he ran into a giant roadblock. He was told he wasn't owed a dime. 

Most people think you go to work, retire and, if there's a pension, you ask the company to send the checks. For many people, it works out fine.

For thousands of others, though, unexpected hurdles stop them from getting a pension check. People end up moving; companies close down plants and offices. Small pensions are easily forgotten about years after you left a job. Even some 401(k)s can go unclaimed in some cases when you leave a company. 

It is estimated that there are $156 billion in unclaimed pension benefits owed to retirees in the United States.

What if the company insists they can't find you in the system and claims you're not owed a pension? Or the plan administrator swears that you were already paid a lump sum years ago? 

In such disputes, some retirees — and their survivors — won't see their money unless they turn to a pension counseling project, such as the Mid-America Pension Rights Project.

"We're kind of their last hope," said Sandra Wisnewski, an attorney and director of client assistance for the Mid-America Pension Rights Project, which is a program of Elder Law of Michigan. 

"Unless they know the law or can talk the talk, they're shoved aside and they're not given any answers." 

Where is my 401(k)? 

Wisnewski works out of the Elder Law of Michigan office in a small Lansing office building. As part of a two-person pension counseling project, she takes calls from frustrated retirees and provides free legal assistance to those who face trouble tracking down 401(k) plans or collecting money from their pension.  

Assistance can include: Answering questions about complicated pension laws; obtaining hard-to-find retirement documents and plan publications; correcting pension miscalculations, and claiming retirement benefits that have been denied, and tracking down benefits from past employers or lost pensions. 

She also can address such questions as: What happens to your pension if you die? And how can I get pension benefits from my ex-spouse? 

The Mid-America Pension Rights Project serves Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Other programs are part of Pension Help America, too. 

The centers are supported, in part, through funding from the the Administration for Community Living.  

The Mid-America Pension Rights Project has helped more than 13,000 clients recover more than $67 million in benefits since 1998. 

"It was their money," Wisnewski said. 

If you were denied a pension, want to locate a former company that may have your pension or want to know whether you can get pension benefits from an ex-spouse, you can contact the nonprofit Mid-America Pension Rights Project at 866-735-7737 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Go to www.mid-americapensions.org.

Wisnewski determines whether the group will take a case after analyzing the facts involved and the possible outcomes, as well as considering any grant restrictions and the group's expertise. 

How can you recover retirement money? 

Many of the people helped don't have money to bring a lawsuit against a company. Sometimes, they might only be owed $100 or $200 a month in a pension at a company where they worked for 10 years or so. But it's money that, if recovered, can pay some bills,

Sigley said ownership of the Ohio company where he had worked years ago had changed. And he was being told a different story about why he wouldn't qualify for any pension, even the small one that he expected. 

"I just thought the company was making a big mistake, which they apparently had," said Sigley, who lives in Romney, West Virginia. 

"I worked for it. I figured it was coming to me," Sigley said. 

He didn't take the first no for an answer. He spotted the Mid-America Pension Rights Project online and sought help to solve the mystery and get his money.

"They really dogged them until they got answers. They didn't give up," Sigley said. 

He says he never would have gotten a dime if he didn't have the outside, free legal help. Now, he's had a choice for an extra $130 or so a month or a lump sum.  

He received and submitted the paperwork, opting for the lump sum payment of $20,375.

"I can say 100 percent that if not for them I would never have gotten what was rightfully owed to me," Sigley said. 

Keith Goll, 65, who lives in Palmyra Township in Lenawee County, tried to claim a small pension about a year ago from a mom-and-pop supplier for heavy equipment in Michigan. 

"Here, I was from November to January — just getting the run around," he said.

First, the human resource manager wasn't in, then no one returned his calls. When he finally was able to speak with someone, he swears what he was told didn't make any sense.

"They said the money was tied up right now with an actuary," he said. "I earned that pension and an actuary shouldn't hold my money up." 

He contacted his state representative and was told about the Mid-American Pension Rights Project, which took his case.

"I had my pension check by the first of April," said Goll, who used to work as a machine operator but had to retire in 2010 after a heart attack. 

He receives about $105 a month, money that he uses to pay supplemental insurance plan for Medicare. 

Goll said he understands that the small company where he used to work seems to have run into financial difficulties over the years. But the pension promise was still part of the deal.

"They were putting me off," he said. "I don't know if I would have had my pension yet." 

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Wisnewski said she believes that many companies want to do the right thing, but records can be lost or third-party processors may not be on the ball.

In some cases, experts note that the pension plan may still be intact in one form or another. New owners of a company may have inherited the legal obligation to pay the benefit due under your old pension plan. 

Or a plan may have bought an annuity contract from an insurance company, which took over the obligation to pay people entitled to benefits. 

A plan could have disappeared if fraud was involved but there's no reason to simply assume that took place. 

It's easy for individuals to get frustrated and give up. When an attorney sends a letter or makes a call, the attorney knows what rights the retiree has under the law, how to work through the system and what proof the retiree needs to provide.

"As soon as you say, I'm an attorney and you start using the pension terms and knowing when they're telling you something that isn't true, then the whole conversation changes," Wisnewski said. 

Wisnewski said she's experienced working with retirees who face all sorts of challenges.

"They'll try to call the company and if it's out of business, then they can't get a hold of anybody," she said.

One company couldn't find any record of someone claiming a pension actually working there. But the person was able to go back to tax records and Social Security earnings reports to prove that he had worked there — and claim a pension. 

Sometimes, she said, people don't save the documents that they need. But even then, it's possible sometimes to work through some problems. 

In one recent case, a retiree was rejected for a pension after the group helped him file a claim. But on appeal, the retiree was granted the pension.

"A lot of times, the people who handle the claim are not always the same people who handle the appeal," she said.

"This was somebody who would have never gotten anything." 

She said the group cannot litigate claims but tries to work out problems — and many times can reach a solution.

Keep your documents

Federal retirement law requires all plans to have a reasonable written procedure for processing your benefits claim and appeal if your claim is denied. 

In general, she said, people who are covered by a pension at a given company should keep records, such as your plan's summary plan description.

If you're vested in a pension plan, make sure to request key documents before you leave the company, such as a copy of the current Plan Document and Summary Plan Description.  The rules that apply to the employee are those that were in effect the year that the employee leaves the company.  

Some other documents can be valuable: A notification that you are vesting in the pension plan, an exit letter (which you should have received when you left an employer) noting your participation in the plan and an individual benefit statement.  

If a company files for bankruptcy, you want to pay attention to whether the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will become involved. 

Wisnewski said the pension rights group sometimes refers clients to the PBGC.  The group also will work with the PBGC when they are the trustee of a plan or have information about a current plan administrator that cannot be found otherwise.  

The PBGC also offers updates when a big employer with a pension plan is in the headlines, such as Sears. 

Sears Holdings, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in October, currently has ongoing pension plans, which cover about 90,000 workers and retirees, that remain under the responsibility of Sears. 

Sears pension plan participants with questions can contact Sears Holdings Pension Service Center or phone 800-953-5390 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. central time. 

PBGC said in a statement that the agency has been working with Sears for several years to improve the funding of the company’s two defined benefit pension plans. the plans are underfunded by about $1.5 billion. 

"PBGC expects that its guarantees would cover the vast majority of benefits earned under those Sears plans," the statement said.

"If circumstances require, we are prepared to step in and provide PBGC-guaranteed benefits," the PBGC said.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. works to find missing people owed benefits from terminated pension plans, such as when a company ends a plan or faces financial distress.

The PBGC has an unclaimed pension search for more than 70,000 people for unclaimed benefits totaling $400 million. Its online tool can help you search for some unclaimed pensions by name or employer at www.pbgc.gov/search-unclaimed-pensions. 

The search function also can help you find contact information by company name for insured pension plans. 

Or call 800-400-7242 and speak with a member of the PBGC's team. 

Unclaimed pensions can be found on that database from some old Michigan employers, including Jacobson Stores, Cunningham Drug Stores, Hughes & Hatcher. Some unclaimed pensions can even be found for the old Circuit City and Montgomery Ward chains. 

The PBGC has expanded its Missing Participants Program to terminated 401(k) plans to connect more people with their lost retirement savings. The expanded program is voluntary for certain plans and will be available for plans that terminate on or after Jan. 1, 2018. 

It's important to keep records of changes and documents that you do receive to help with any questions down the line. It can be important to know what happened to the pension plan after you left the job. 

And experts like Wisnewski say it's important not to just throw up your hands and give up at the first sign of a roadblock. 

Contact Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com or 313-222-8876. Follow Susan on Twitter @Tompor.