How to find an old 401(k) from a former employer
A 401(k) balance does not disappear when you leave a job. The vested part is yours, and it stays in one of four places: still in your old employer's plan, in another company's plan after a merger, in an IRA the plan opened for you, or, if the plan shut down and could not reach you, with a state unclaimed-property office or the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Finding it is free. Here is the order that works.
1. Find the plan and who runs it
Every 401(k) plan with 100 or more participants files a public annual report, Form 5500, with the Department of Labor. 401k Lookup has joined those reports year by year for 5,364 large employers (plan years 2009 to 2025). Search your old employer above and note three things from its page: the plan name and number, the employer's EIN, and the recordkeeper, which is the company that runs the plan's website and sends statements (Fidelity, Empower, Vanguard and so on).
Not sure of the company's legal name? Your old W-2 shows the employer's EIN in box b. Every plan filing is tied to that number.
2. Call the recordkeeper
The recordkeeper can find your account with your Social Security number and the plan's name. Ask whether you still have a balance, and if not, where it went and when. If the recordkeeper changed since you left, the new one usually holds the records; our pages show each plan's recordkeepers by year. If you cannot get through, call the plan administrator listed on the plan's page. That is the employer's own benefits office, as of the filing shown.
3. If the company was sold, follow the plan
When a company is bought, its 401(k) is often merged into the buyer's plan, and every account moves with it. The old plan then files a final report that names the plan its assets went to. Where that happened, our plan pages say "merged into" and link to the receiving plan, so you can keep following the money to the company that holds it today.
4. If the plan was closed, find where the money went
A plan that shuts down must pay out every account. People it could not reach usually end up in one of these places:
- An IRA in your name at a bank or brokerage the plan chose. The plan administrator can tell you which one.
- The PBGC's Missing Participants Program. Since 2018, 401(k) plans that close can send missing people's money, or the name of the company holding it, to the PBGC. Search PBGC's unclaimed retirement benefits.
- State unclaimed property. Search every state at once on MissingMoney.com, the states' own site.
Small balances may have been moved without asking
When you leave, a plan may move a small balance out on its own. Balances under $1,000 can be paid to you by check. Balances from $1,000 up to the cash-out limit must be rolled into an IRA opened in your name if you did not choose something else. The limit was $5,000 and is $7,000 for payouts after December 31, 2023, for plans that adopted the higher figure. If you left with a small balance and never heard more, ask the plan which IRA provider received it.
5. Check the free government searches
- Retirement Savings Lost and Found, from the Department of Labor, searches plan records with your Social Security number. You sign in with Login.gov.
- The Social Security Administration can give you a Notice of Potential Private Retirement Benefit Information (Form SSA-L99-C1), built from reports plans file about former employees who left with vested benefits. These listings can be out of date, so treat one as a lead to check with the plan, not proof of a balance.
- The Department of Labor's Form 5500 search shows each year's original filing.
- Stuck? The Department of Labor's benefits advisers answer questions for free at askebsa.dol.gov or 1-866-444-3272.
Never pay to find your own money
Every step above is free. Be wary of any service that asks for a fee or a share of what it finds, and never give your Social Security number to anyone except the plan, its recordkeeper or a government agency you contacted yourself.