Now You See It, Now You Don’t

The Wall Street Journal has this today,”Is Money Missing from Your 401(k)?” The article reports how a certain company failed to credit employee contributions and matches under a 401(k) plan to employee accounts, going all the way back to 1999. Apparently, the problem which can occur inadvertently through administrative error as well as for other reasons is more common that one would like to think. The article reports that the Department of Labor, which polices employee-benefit plans, says reports of troubled corporate retirement plans are on the rise and that the number of civil and criminal retirement-plan cases closed by the Labor Department has risen to 1,459 in the year ended Sept. 30, from 962 in 1999. Quote of Note: “Experts stress the importance of tracking your contributions. “You have to keep comparing your pay stub and account statements to make sure they match up,” says Jack Van Derhai, a retirement-plan expert and business professor at Temple University. He says he has found errors in his own statements in the past when he worked for a different university.”