A global industrial manufacturer with multiple retirement plans and tens of thousands of participants was struggling to manage participant engagement in its defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans. Plan data revealed a growing population of individuals who had reached or surpassed normal retirement age without initiating benefit payments. In parallel, the client faced mounting volumes of uncashed checks, participant address errors, and incomplete data, particularly in legacy plans and post-conversion scenarios.
With regulatory scrutiny increasing and the plan’s recordkeeper preparing to “forfeit” some participant balances and benefits, the client engaged SBA to provide a more rigorous, fiduciary-aligned solution.
SBA stepped in to prevent inappropriate forfeitures and designed a comprehensive approach to engage aging participants and track outstanding distributions. Starting at normal retirement age, SBA layered customized outreach efforts over the recordkeeper’s standard mailings—progressively intensifying efforts as participants approached required minimum distribution (RMD) deadlines.
To properly account for all outstanding checks, SBA developed a proprietary database to track uncashed checks and reissuances across multiple plans. The system captures monthly updates and reconciles historical activity that the recordkeeper's system could not accurately reflect due to limitations in data retention and reporting.
SBA also advised the client on process and plan design changes, such as expanding default rollover provisions for small balances to reduce exposure to uncashed checks. Throughout the engagement, SBA has served as a hands-on partner, continually advocating for process improvements and helping the client understand this work as a long-term fiduciary responsibility.
Since engaging SBA, the client has achieved a 48% reduction in the population of participants requiring intervention, including those with outdated addresses, uncashed checks, and delayed commencements.
SBA’s monthly reconciliation process has brought clarity to previously opaque data, allowing the client to proactively track and resolve uncashed distributions over time. In parallel, SBA’s recommendations for plan design changes have reduced administrative burden and strengthened compliance.
By shifting its perspective from one-time cleanup to continuous fiduciary oversight, the client has established long-term operational discipline in managing retirement-age participants and ensuring benefits are paid accurately and on time.
