29 U.S.C. § 1350 — Missing participants

(a) General rule. (1) Payment to the corporation. A plan administrator satisfies section 1341(b)(3)(A) for a missing participant only if the administrator (A) transfers the participant’s designated benefit to the corporation or buys an irrevocable commitment from an insurer under section 1341(b)(3)(A)(i), and (B) gives the corporation the information and certifications it specifies about those benefits or commitments. (2) Treatment of transferred assets. A transfer under this section is treated as a transfer of assets from a terminated plan to the corporation as trustee. The assets must be held with assets of terminated plans for which the corporation is trustee under section 1342, subject to that section’s rules. (3) Payment by the corporation. When a missing participant whose designated benefit was transferred is found, the corporation must pay. (A) If the plan could have paid the benefit in one sum without participant or spouse consent under section 1055(g), it must pay the participant or beneficiary one sum equal to the designated benefit transferred plus interest specified by the corporation. (B) Otherwise, it must pay a benefit based on the designated benefit and the assumptions the corporation prescribed when it received the benefit. It must make that benefit available in the same forms and at the same times as a guaranteed benefit under section 1322, but it may pay one sum if the plan provided a one-sum benefit, other than a one-sum benefit described in subsection (b)(2)(A). (b) Definitions. (1) “Missing participant” means a participant or beneficiary under a terminating plan whom the administrator cannot locate after a diligent search. This section does not define “diligent search.” (2) “Designated benefit” means the one-sum benefit the participant would receive: (A) under the plan’s assumptions, when the benefit can be distributed without participant or spouse consent under section 1055(g); (B) under the corporation’s assumptions in effect when the benefit is transferred, when the plan pays no one sums other than those in subparagraph (A); or (C) under whichever assumptions of the corporation or plan produce the higher one sum, when the plan pays another kind of one sum. (c) Multiemployer plans. The corporation must prescribe similar rules for covered multiemployer plans that terminate under section 1341a. (d) Plans not otherwise subject to subchapter. (1) Transfer to corporation. The administrator of a plan described in paragraph (4) may elect, when the plan terminates, to transfer a missing participant’s benefits to the corporation. (2) Information to the corporation. To the extent regulations require, the administrator must give the corporation information about a missing participant’s benefits if the plan transfers them (A) to the corporation, or (B) to an entity other than the corporation or a plan described in paragraph (4)(B)(ii). (3) Payment by the corporation. If benefits were transferred under paragraph (1), the corporation must, when the participant or beneficiary is found, pay the transferred amount, or the proper survivor benefit, either (A) in one sum plus interest, or (B) in another form specified by the corporation’s regulations. (4) Plans described. A plan is covered by this paragraph if (A) it is a pension plan within section 1002(2), this section otherwise does not apply to it, it is not a plan listed in section 1321(b)(2), (3), (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), or (11), and it was a section 401(a) plan including a trust exempt under section 501(a) of title 26; and (B) when its assets are to be distributed on termination, it has missing participants and has not provided for transferring all missing participants’ benefits to another pension plan within section 1002(2). (5) Certain provisions not to apply. Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(3) do not apply to a plan described in paragraph (4). (e) Regulatory authority. The corporation must issue regulations needed to carry out this section, including rules about what counts as a diligent search, the amount paid to the corporation, and the amount the corporation pays out.