I don’t know why this occurred to me out of the blue, but I’ll go ahead and ask…
I worked for a company than went bankrupt many years ago. We’re talking 1985-ish.
I was employed full time and was fully vested in the pension plan.
All these years I assumed the pension was pffffttttt because of the bankruptcy.
But I recently got to thinking: aren’t pensions invested outside of the company? Aren’t there federal regulations and requirements that they belong to the employee and the employer may not access these funds? I know there have been some employers who have found themselves in deep crap for robbing the pension funds.
Anyway, how might I go about investigating whether I am entitled to a little chunk of something? I have no idea where to begin.
Pensions are supposed to be guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. So look there to see if your old company was covered. Even if it was, you may not get everything you were entitled to.
If you’re vested in a pension you should have been receiving periodic notices from them. If not, either they don’t have your correct mailing address or there’s no pension fund anymore. I’m not sure how you would check it out if the company is now complete defunct. Perhaps you can track down some former colleagues at the company to see if they have more info.