There is a federal lost-401(k) database now — here is what it misses

The SECURE 2.0 Act ordered the Labor Department to build a central place to look for retirement benefits people had lost track of. It launched on December 29, 2024, and it is real: defined-benefit pensions and defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s, drawn substantially from historical Form 8955-SSA filings.

It is a genuine improvement on calling former employers one at a time. It is also worth knowing what it does not hold before you conclude a search has found nothing.

What is not in it

The database covers people who worked for a private-sector employer or belonged to a union that sponsored a retirement plan. Individual retirement accounts are not in it. Plans sponsored by government entities — city, state, or federal — are not in it, nor are those of certain religious organizations. Social Security is a separate matter entirely.

The contact details it returns can also be stale. The department notes that the filings behind it may not reflect plan mergers, new plan administrators, or updated contact information, so a result may point at a company that no longer exists under that name.

You will need a verified Login.gov account

Searching is not anonymous. Access requires a Login.gov account validated with legal identification — your legal name, date of birth, and Social Security number, plus photos of the front and back of a state-issued driver's license, and a phone to receive a code.

That is a reasonable trade for a database that returns your own retirement records, but it is a heavier lift than a name search, and worth knowing before you sit down to it.

The searches that cover the gaps

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation holds unclaimed benefits for people whose private-sector plans ended and were handed to it. That search takes a last name and the last four digits of a Social Security number, and it is updated quarterly.

State unclaimed property is the other half. Small balances from old plans are often cashed out and eventually reported to a state, so a plan that has vanished from federal databases may have become a line in a state treasurer's list. Search every state you have worked in.