Pension and Retirement Plan Resources

Iowa Legal Aid may be able to advise you about pension and other retirement plan issues. Here are links to helpful resources:

Pension Rights Center:  For many years, Iowa Legal Aid has been a part of the Pension Rights Center’s nationwide network of counseling and information services to ensure that everyone with a pension or retirement savings question or problem will have a place to go for help. https://pensionrights.org/ The PRC’s website contains many helpful articles on pension-related topics, including how to find a lost pension: https://pensionrights.org/issue/lost-plans-missing-participants/.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: The PBGC helps employees with a wide variety of pension-related issues. In particular, the PBGC website has a search engine to assist in locating people who may be owed a pension benefit without knowing it. https://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees. It includes a guide to help people search for lost pensions from former employers. https://www.pbgc.gov/archived/wr/find-unclaimed-retirement-benefits/about. It provides information about multi-employer plans, https://www.pbgc.gov/prac/multiemployer. The PBGC also administers certain failed pensions, https://www.pbgc.gov/wr/trusteed/plans.

National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits: This website allows searches based on social security number. https://unclaimedretirementbenefits.com/

FreeERISA: This website provides free access to pension and benefit data, including a database of Form 5500 filings that all pensions are required to file under federal law. https://freeerisa.benefitspro.com/

Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS): The federal CSRS/FERS Handbook for Personnel and Payroll Offices includes rules for calculating and administering federal civil service pensions. https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/

Iowa Public Employee Retirement System (IPERS):. https://ipers.org/

Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa: http://www.mfprsi.org/