Bipartisan legislation to help find lost or forgotten retirement savings accounts was introduced Tuesday by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Steve Daines, R-Mont. The proposed Retirement Savings Lost and Found Act would use data that employers are already required to report to create a national, online, lost-and-found database for retirement accounts.
The bill would also allow employers to more easily invest abandoned accounts into target-date funds rather than money market funds, and for orphaned funds with balances of less than $1,000 to be transferred to Treasury securities, such as the federal MyRA, so that balances earn a positive return. The bill is supported by AARP and the Pension Rights Center.
The co-sponsors noted in a news release that a 2014 Government Accountability Office report found that many Americans leave their jobs each year without giving their employers directions with what to do with their retirement accounts, and a survey by TIAA-CREF found that 30% of Americans have left an account at their previous employer, resulting in tens of millions of Americans with one neglected account and millions more with two or more forgotten accounts.