For millennials, the idea of a pension plan that pays benefits from the time you retire to the day you die is an unheard-of concept. Fewer and fewer American companies offer this benefit, so if you are among those who have a defined-benefit pension, congratulations! But don’t assume the check is in the mail. A recent investigation by the Department of Labor into some of these large plans shows that more than $500 million is owed to retirees.
Kiplinger’s article, “Missing Pensions Costly to Retirees,”reports that between summer 2015 and 2016, the Labor Department investigated more than four dozen large pension plans and found staggering results: some of them are not doing a very good job of monitoring retired participants and paying benefits when they’re owed. Some plans don’t even have the names or ages of many of their participants.
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