One in Three Americans May Have Retirement Money They Don’t Remember About, New Data Shows

An old job could provide an unexpected financial boon, with new data showing that many people in the U.S. have money in retirement accounts they don't remember about.

A survey by retirement services provider Empower found that 34% of Americans believe they may have savings from a previous employer that they've lost track of.

Among younger adults, the numbers are even higher, raising questions about how much retirement money could be sitting outside workers' regular financial plans.

Half of Gen Z respondents and 45% of millennials reported potentially losing track of old retirement savings, compared with 30% of Gen X and just 14% of baby boomers, according to Empower's research.

The study does not confirm that all those respondents have missing accounts or establish how much money might be involved. But it identifies a common problem: Retirement savings don't necessarily follow people when their careers move on.

Empower's study, titled "The Retirement Drift," found that 84% of Americans have changed employers at least once, while 53% have changed jobs three or more times. More than a quarter have worked for at least five different employers. Each move can introduce another retirement account, particularly for employees who participate in workplace plans such as 401(k)s.

Nearly two in five respondents, or 39%, said their retirement savings were spread across accounts associated with different employers. For 54%, managing those separate accounts made planning for retirement more difficult.

The problem isn't necessarily that the money has disappeared. An account may remain with a former employer's retirement plan or have been transferred to another provider. Workers who have changed addresses, employers or email accounts may simply have trouble finding the relevant records.

For some Americans, the difficulty begins when they leave a job without understanding what happens to the money they have accumulated.

Empower found that 54% of respondents weren't aware they had several options for handling retirement savings after leaving an employer. Two-thirds wished someone had explained those choices when they changed jobs.

Even when workers understand that an old account needs attention, the process can be easy to postpone. Nearly half of respondents, 47%, said they had delayed dealing with retirement savings, including arranging a rollover, because it felt overwhelming. The figure reached 58% among Gen Z and 57% among millennials.

Younger adults were also less confident that they could locate all their savings if they needed to. Among Gen Z respondents, 57% said they weren't confident they could find every retirement account they owned. That compared with 45% of millennials, 38% of Gen X and 25% of baby boomers.

Those figures measure people's confidence in locating accounts, rather than proving that the accounts contain unclaimed money.

The survey also found that managing retirement savings frequently fell to the bottom of respondents' financial priorities, particularly among younger adults.

"Changing jobs is a normal part of a career, but our financial lives don't always transition as neatly," said Jane Bartosik, senior vice president of Wealth Solutions at Empower.

Bartosik said decisions about old 401(k) accounts can become less urgent when employees are settling into new positions and handling other financial responsibilities.

That leaves a practical question for anyone who has worked at several companies: If you contributed to a retirement plan years ago, where would you look for it now?

How To Find Retirement Money From A Previous Job

The federal government has a tool designed for precisely that situation. The U.S. Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database allows eligible individuals to search for workplace retirement plans associated with their Social Security number.

Established under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, the service helps workers identify plans they previously participated in and provides contact information for the administrators responsible for them.

Users must first verify their identity through Login.gov. Once authenticated, they can enter their Social Security number to search for plans linked to their employment history.

The results do not automatically mean money is waiting to be claimed. A listed account may already have been paid out, rolled into another retirement account or converted into an annuity. The plan administrator must confirm whether any benefits remain.

The database generally covers eligible private-sector workplace plans, rather than every retirement arrangement in the country.

Another federal resource, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's unclaimed benefits database, allows individuals to search for certain retirement benefits associated with terminated plans.

Former employees can also contact the human resources department of a previous employer or the financial institution that managed its retirement plan to find out whether an account remains in their name.

Locating the money is only part of the process. Workers may then need to decide whether to leave it in an existing plan, transfer it to another employer's plan or move it into an individual retirement account, depending on eligibility and plan rules. Cashing out retirement savings can have tax consequences.

The research found that many Americans want a simpler way to manage those decisions. More than three-quarters, or 76%, said clear, step-by-step guidance would make them more likely to act, while 70% said they would be more inclined to combine old retirement accounts if the process required less time.

The survey was conducted online from July 30 to Aug. 1 among 2,005 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, with responses weighted to be nationally representative.