My husband has lost track of his 401k plans from the late 80s. How do we go about tracking them down?

This can be difficult as there is no national clearing house for all 401(k) plan information, so some serious detective work may be needed. It’s important that whenever you move to notify the administrator of your old 401(k), as well as your former employer so you don’t run into this problem. Remember your account assets are with the plan administrator, not your old employer, so the goal here is to find out who that is. Here are suggestions on things to try:
1. First suggestion is to look through your old financial records and try and dig up any old statements the plan administrator sent you. The administrator should be sending a statement to you at least quarterly - it should have contact information.
2. Contact the HR department of your old employer. Ask them to check their plan records to see if you ever participated in their 401k plan, and to give you the name and contact phone number of the plan administrator.
3. Contact your former boss or other employees you worked with and ask if they know who the administrative firm is.

If the company is no longer in existence or has been swallowed up by other companies, you will have to do some deterctive work to find out where the plans went. Post back if none of the above procedures work.

Thank you.

You may also check with some of the larger plans directly. When I signed up for my new company's 401k I was given access to Fidelity's NetBenifits site. When I first logged in, I found I had a 401k and pension there from an old job that I never knew I had.