Why Should Employees Use This Service?
The National Registry is simple and free. It is a way for employees to determine whether there are any unclaimed retirement plan funds that belong to them. Once you have performed a search on the site and found retirement money that belongs to you, we will notify the former Plan Sponsor or Custodian holding your retirement money and email them your new contact information if you provided it. Or, you can contact your former Plan Sponsor or the Custodian holding the funds (for example, PenChecks Trust) and claim your retirement account.

Why Did I Find My Name On This Site?
It means that an individual or organization, such as a former employer or financial institution, registered you on the site as having an unclaimed retirement account. This site is one of many tools employers, benefits administrators and other third parties use when attempting to help former employees locate their funds and to locate retirement plan participants with unclaimed funds.

How Did You Get My Money?
PenChecks Trust may or may not have your money. In some cases, employers hold on to the funds and register your name on this site in an attempt to locate you. In other cases, employers contract with a third party provider like PenChecks Trust to open a Default/Missing Participant IRA account in your name and serve as the custodian of your account. This protects your investment until you come forward to claim your retirement funds.

How Do I See If A Former Employer Has Registered Me?
Simply enter your Social Security Number on the search page and search our database for any nationwide matches. If there are any matches you will be shown which Employer or Custodian (a financial institution such as a bank or trust company) is holding retirement money on your behalf. You will then be asked to provide your current contact information if you want. If you provide your contact information it will help expedite you taking control of your funds (otherwise you will have to make the effort to contact them directly.) This will enable your former Employer or the current Custodian of your IRA to contact you and make arrangements to either pay you your retirement account money or roll it over, whichever option you deem most appropriate for you.
Once you enter your contact information, it will be automatically sent (via email) to the person or organization that registered you in our database, notifying them you are interested in obtaining your retirement benefit. They will then send you a Benefit Election form you can fill out to instruct your former Employer or the current Custodian how you would like to receive your benefit – as a rollover to an IRA or to another Plan that accepts rollovers, a lump sum distribution directly to you, or a combination thereof.

Is There A Risk In Providing My Personal Information?
As with any technology, there is always some risk even if only a slight risk. The NRURB is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust as it relates to the privacy of your Personal Information. Accordingly, we take information security seriously and use certain reasonable security measures to help protect your Personal Information. These measures include but may not be limited to:

• Maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information.
• Restricting access to your personal information to employees with a business need to know.
• Ensuring that any personal information that is shared with third parties as necessary for standard business purposes is shared only as required or allowed by law.
• Maintaining an information security infrastructure.
• Use of Tier 4 data centers that are designed to host mission-critical systems, are fault-tolerant and have no single point of failure which allows them to operate continuously.

In addition, National Registry searches are performed using only your Social Security Number – we do not ask for any additional information such as name, address, phone number, or date of birth, which are purely voluntary on your part.

What Are Auto Rollover IRAs And Missing Participant IRAs?
Auto Rollover IRAs are special IRA accounts authorized by federal law and established to protect the assets of former employees who have left behind funds (must be less than $5,000) with their former Employer’s retirement plan. They are administered by regulated financial institutions like PenChecks Trust Company of America at the request of the former employer for on-going and active Retirement Plans.
Missing Participant IRAs are also special IRA accounts authorized by federal law and are also administered by regulated financial institutions like PenChecks Trust Company of America at the request of the former Employer, but the Plan is terminating or has terminated. Unlike Auto Rollover IRAs (which have a $5,000 cap), Missing Participant IRAs have no dollar cap.

Who Is PenChecks Trust Company of America?
PenChecks Trust is one of the nation’s largest independent retirement plan benefit distribution processing service providers. We offer proven, technology-based, affordable, professional and convenient solutions for Plan Sponsors, Financial Institutions, Registered Investment Advisors, Third-Party Administrators and Employee/Participants.
In 1999 PenChecks Trust pioneered a breakthrough by completing extensive research on how to solve the growing problem of what to do with missing or non-responsive retirement plan participants who have account balances in a retirement plan. By establishing the first Missing Participant and Auto Rollover IRA Program in the U.S., we demonstrated our commitment to developing meaningful solutions that add value to the pension industry, plan sponsors, institutions and, above all, plan participants. Our commitment to continue developing and delivering meaningful and practical solutions continues with the National Registry.

Why Should Employers Use This Service?
The National Registry helps you connect with former retirement plan participants so you can pay them out and minimize your fiduciary liability, and reduce your costs for the remaining participants in your plan. Using the site provides supporting evidence that you are taking appropriate steps to uphold your fiduciary responsibility as a Plan Sponsor as set forth under the DOL FAB 2014-01. When a former plan participant locates money on this site, PenChecks Trust will automatically advise you that a former participant has been located. If the participant provides their new contact information, we will send it to you (via email) so you can make arrangements to pay them out.

What Is A Non-Responsive Participant?
A non-responsive participant is an individual who has an account balance or accrued benefit under a qualified plan, has terminated their employment with the plan sponsor, and fails to provide the employer or third party administrator with instructions on what to do with their account balance. A Missing Participant Auto Rollover IRA is an IRA account set up on behalf of the former employee to preserve their retirement assets until they are claimed by the participant or their beneficiaries under Department of Labor regulations.

What Is A Missing Participant?
A Missing Participant is much like a Non-Responsive Participant. In the former, the Participant cannot be located (hence the term “missing”). In the latter the Participant has been found/located but they fail to respond (hence the term “non-responsive”). Both situations result in a Participant who has not claimed their retirement benefit.

Why Are Auto Rollover or Missing Participant IRAs Set Up?
These accounts are set up to preserve the Non-Responsive or Missing Participant’s retirement assets until they are claimed by the participant or their beneficiary(ies). To qualify for a Default IRA, the account balance must be greater than $100 but less than $5,000 unless the funds are coming from a terminated plan, then the $5,000 ceiling is waived.

What Can Employers Do With Their Missing/Non-Responsive Participants?
o Until your Missing or Non-Responsive Participants (former employees) are found by us (or they find you), you can place the unclaimed funds into a PenChecks Trust Missing Participant or Auto Rollover IRA. This eliminates your fiduciary liability by virtue of the safe harbor provisions, and PenChecks Trust maintains the recordkeeping for the IRA, performs an annual search and prepares and files IRS Form 5498. Depending on your Plan’s language, establishing an Auto Rollover or Missing Participant IRA could be a requirement under current law. All Missing Participant and Auto Rollover IRAs established through PenChecks Trust are automatically registered in the NRURB database. Visit www.penchecks.com to learn more about setting up a Missing Participant or Auto Rollover IRA.

How Is Data On The Site Protected?
As with any technology, there is always some risk even if only a slight risk. The NRURB is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust as it relates to the privacy of your Personal Information. Accordingly, we take information security seriously and use certain reasonable security measures to help protect your Personal Information. These measures include but may not be limited to:

• Maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information.
• Restricting access to your personal information to employees with a business need to know.
• Ensuring that any personal information that is shared with third parties as necessary for standard business purposes is shared only as required or allowed by law.
• Maintaining an information security infrastructure.
• Use of Tier 4 data centers that are designed to host mission-critical systems, are fault-tolerant and have no single point of failure which allows them to operate continuously.

In addition, National Registry searches are performed using only your Social Security Number – we do not ask for any additional information such as name, address, phone number, or date of birth, which are purely voluntary on your part.

How Do PenChecks Trust’s IRA Programs Meet Federal Regulations?
Under Department of Labor regulations, Automatic Rollover and Missing Participant IRAs must meet certain conditions for plan fiduciaries to be deemed to meet their obligations to the participant under Section 404(a) of ERISA. The PenChecks Trust Automatic Rollover and Missing Participant IRA Program is designed to fully meet these requirements as follows:

• The PenChecks Trust IRA meets the definition of an IRA under Section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue Code and DOL FAB 2014-01.
• The PenChecks IRA Adoption Agreement provides for the following:
  • The funds will be invested in a deposit account with the Custodian, PenChecks Trust Company of America. All funds will bear a reasonable rate of return, and all accounts are insured by the FDIC in compliance with DOL FAB 2014-01.
  • Because the funds are invested in an interest-bearing and FDIC insured deposit account product, the PenChecks Trust IRA complies with the requirement that the product "seeks to maintain, over the term of the investment, the dollar value that is equal to the amount invested.” However, it should be recognized that an account, because of its size and fluctuating interest rates, could be reduced due to low interest rates and ongoing fees.
  • The bank deposits are offered by either a state or federally chartered bank, are FDIC insured, and the sub-custodian bank must maintain an IDC rating of 150 or higher.
  • The Participant is entitled to rights of enforcement under the contract establishing the IRA.
  • The IRA can incorporate any protected benefit that existed in the Plan where the funds originated from, and where the employer elected for the protected benefits to pass through to the IRA, such as Joint and Survivor Benefits.
  • Any beneficiary designation form on file with the Plan Sponsor can be made part of the IRA if the Plan Sponsor transfers a completed and properly executed beneficiary designation form to the PenChecks Trust IRA.
  • If a Participant shows up to claim their benefits within 60 days of the date of establishing the IRA account, all set-up charges will be waived.
  • All fees, whether setup or monthly administration fees, are paid exclusively by the Participant unless the Employer/Plan Sponsor elects to pay some or all of the fees.