Case Study

TRACKING DOWN MISSING DC PLAN PARTICIPANTS IN A HIGH-TURNOVER INDUSTRY

A textile manufacturing company with over 20,000 defined contribution (DC) plan participants faced a growing challenge with uncashed checks and stale participant contact data. The client’s population includes a high percentage of mobile, transient workers in production roles, which contributed to frequent changes in address and short average tenure. As a result, plan records often lagged behind reality, and a significant number of distribution checks remained uncashed, some for well over a decade.

The client engaged SBA to help locate missing participants and resolve outstanding plan payments. The project has since become an annual engagement, with SBA serving as a trusted partner in the client’s fiduciary oversight of the plan.

SBA began by identifying participants associated with uncashed checks and those flagged for bad addresses—two symptoms often indicative of a broader data quality issue. For each flagged case, SBA deployed its tiered approach: beginning with public and subscription-based locator services, then escalating to more intensive methods as needed. This included manual research through funeral home records, social media, state agencies, and old plan data, as well as 1:1 outreach by phone and email. SBA’s success was rooted in persistence and creativity—treating each case not as a mailing exercise but as a human connection challenge.

In cases where the participant had been rehired since their prior departure, SBA leveraged the client’s internal channels to correct outdated addresses and prevent future issues. SBA also recommended process improvements, such as applying de minimis thresholds for uncashed check resolution and adopting internal triggers for data review when rehires occur.

Since the initial engagement, SBA has reduced the client’s legacy backlog of uncashed checks by 68%, despite many of the checks being more than a decade old. While SBA continues to chip away at the remaining legacy cases, the team also manages a steady stream of new uncashed checks that arise each year, resolving approximately 20% of the outstanding volume annually.

The client has also seen greater administrative efficiency, having cleared out low-dollar items and redirected focus to cases with more meaningful participant outcomes. By maintaining consistent, year-over-year attention to both longstanding and newly arising issues, the client has prevented compounding exposure and established a sustainable, proactive approach to plan hygiene and fiduciary compliance.