SSA Notification - deferred benefit

[Karen McIver]

Are there any resources to find 1099-R's or other proof that a benefit was paid out to a participant?

This client doesn't have his old records.  Plan was terminated years ago before they became our client.

[CuseFan]

I won't go into the could have should have scenarios as it wasn't your client at the time. 

What we have often done is have the Plan Administrator write a letter to the claimant saying that the letter from Social Security indicates that you may have a benefit due from the plan, not that you do indeed have a benefit due from the plan. Our records indicate that the plan had been terminated (add year) and all remaining benefits due were paid out at termination with no further benefits due. If you did not receive your benefit at that time, you likely elected to receive it earlier or it may have been involuntarily paid as mandated by the plan if it was a small account balance. We have no record of you having a current account in the plan and ask you to review our historical bank, IRA, brokerage and other financial records for your payment. 

Sometimes this is enough to jog their memory or otherwise make them go away satisfied that they did some time ago get their money.

If not, then things can get tedious, trying to secure prior bank records, old 5500's and the like to figure out when the person might have been paid and chasing down the proof it was paid. 

Good luck, these are not fun to deal with.

[Lou S.]

If the Plan was in a packaged vendor program, it's possible the Trustee can get the final payout amount from that custodian, assuming they haven't been swallowed by some other company in the interim. It would probably have to be the Trustee that was on record with that custodian and you'd likely need at least the contract number and the participant's SSN. If the client issued their own checks from the trust, we'll best of luck. But yes the letter saying Plan was terminated in XXXX and all benefits have been paid. We show no record of benefit due to you from the XYZ Plan. That usually makes former participants disappear.