IRS Provides Some Relief on Missing Participant Compliance Concern

Many sponsors of qualified plans have concerns about how to comply with certain Internal Revenue Service requirements involving payments to participants and beneficiaries who cannot be found or are not responsive. Those “Missing Participants” most often come to the attention of the plan administrator when communications are returned to the sender as undeliverable with no known forwarding address. In this article, special counsel Susan Bernstein discusses recent guidance by the IRS on how administrators of qualified employee benefit plans can comply with requirements involving payments to participants and beneficiaries who can’t be found or aren’t responsive.