Common use of Locating lost participants Clause in Contracts

Locating lost participants. Reasonable actions must be taken to find all current and former participants and beneficiaries to whom additional benefits are due, but who have not been located after a mailing to the last known address. In general, such actions include use of the Internal Revenue Service Letter Forwarding Program (see Rev. Proc. 94-22, 1994-1 C.B. 608) or the Social Security Administration Employer Reporting Service. A plan will not be considered to have failed to correct a failure due to the inability to locate an individual if either of these programs is used; provided that, if the individual is later located, the additional benefits are provided to the individual at that time. The Internal Revenue Service Letter Forwarding Program may not be used to locate participants in order to collect amounts owed to the plan. On occasion, the Internal Revenue Service may decline to perform the letter forwarding request, even if additional benefits are due to participants. In such a situation, it is expected that the Plan Sponsor will take other reasonable actions to locate participants to whom additional benefits are due.