And in November, the monetary companies trade established a system that routinely strikes outdated retirement accounts into the plan of the employee’s new employer. The Portability Services Network routinely matches Social Safety numbers on office accounts, obtains the employee’s consent to maneuver the cash and routinely deposits cash from the outdated account into the brand new employer’s plan. Workers can verify for lacking accounts on the community’s web site through the use of their final identify and final 4 digits of their Social Safety quantity.

The voluntary community contains the plan directors Alight Options, Empower, Constancy Investments, Principal, TIAA and Vanguard and makes use of know-how from Retirement Clearinghouse. These monetary companies corporations administer and maintain the information for employer plans and are anticipated to encourage the employers sponsoring their plans to take part. Moreover serving to savers keep away from pressured I.R.A.s, the community would get rid of cashing out accounts with balances of $1,000 or much less, Mr. Williams of Retirement Clearinghouse mentioned.

“There’s no measurement restrict” on the accounts that may be routinely moved, he mentioned. “We’ll take balances all the way down to a penny. Most of those plans are cashing out balances of lower than $1,000, and the sponsor is left with an enormous uncashed verify downside. The trade is affected by these uncashed checks.”

Dealing with your outdated 401(okay)

Staff are free to maneuver their outdated accounts with no community or federal database, and have a number of choices. The objective, monetary planners say, is to maintain most or all the cash collectively, the place the investments might be coordinated and the efficiency simply monitored. Listed below are factors to know.

• If a brand new employer has a 401(okay) or related plan, that plan’s administrator can sometimes deal with combining your accounts. This might assist you to take a mortgage in opposition to the account steadiness, if that possibility is obtainable. Loans might be taken solely out of your present employer plan.

• If a brand new employer doesn’t supply its personal plan or you’ve stopped working, your outdated plan might be rolled into an I.R.A., a switch most monetary companies suppliers can deal with.

• In case your plan steadiness totals greater than $7,000, the cash might be left within the former employer’s plan. Account holders ought to register on-line to get statements and to handle their investments.

• Staff with a steadiness of lower than $1,000 will almost certainly discover themselves cashed out of their outdated plan. To keep away from paying taxes and potential early-withdrawal penalties, deposit that cash into an I.R.A. inside 60 days. The deposit should cowl the whole 401(okay) steadiness withdrawn, together with any cash withheld for taxes. (That cash might be reclaimed on the account holder’s subsequent tax return.)

“If the steadiness is lower than $1,000, my recommendation is don’t let it money out. You may roll it over,” mentioned Jeanne Fisher Sutton, an authorized monetary planner in Nashville often known as 401(k) Lady on YouTube. “Many, many individuals are dropping observe of their 401(okay)s, and it’s so onerous to seek out. Should you’re leaving an employer, roll it over and be proactive about your account administration.”

Ms. Featherngill, the Comerica Financial institution govt, lastly transferred her outdated 401(okay) from Wells Fargo, two years after she left.