You should probably speak to an ERISA lawyer. I am concerned that the funds you described were actually used in a 401K plan-- it is my understanding that such plans were not authorized until 1978 and came into vogue with the larger corporations a year or more later, which makes me wonder if your gentleman's employer even participated during the time frame you mentioned.
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) was enacted in late 1974, and governs private pension plans. Among its objectives is to provide disclosure of information to the employee participants in private pension plans, usually through Summary Plan Descriptions and statements of periodic account activity. A Plan Administrator would be responsible for this type of information, and an ERISA lawyer may be able to help ascertain who that was and whether/when it might have changed. If your veteran was employed through a union, that entity also should be able to help track down the information.
If there was no 401K but instead a private employer-sponsored pension/retirement plan, a critical consideration will be whether such plan was what is called a defined-contribution or defined-benefit plan. The latter generally requires vesting (or would have at that time), and it is unclear whether your veteran was employed the requisite amount of time for vesting to occur. Again, an ERISA lawyer should be able to provide at least some general answers.
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09-05-2012, 11:44 AM
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