My daughter has a 401K account with a company that went out of business several years ago. 5 to be exact. They also had filed bankruptcy, and were pretty much a financial mess. I would like to help her locate any money she paid into it, but where do I start to look?

I would think that the place to start would be to look at any documents that she has concerning the investment(s) and subsequently the institutions where the investment(s) were located. You could then contact the or those institutions to inquiry as to what might be there. I wish you well in this endeavor.

Hopefully, others will also be along to address your question.

Your daughter's 401(k) money is not invested with her old company, but rather is managed by the 401(k) plan administrator. So the fact that her employer went bankrupt should have no bearing UNLESS there was malfeasance going on and the company neglected to forward her contributions to the administrator.

While your daughter was working for these people she should have received regular mailings from the 401(k) plan administrator detailing contributions and earnings of the plan. So as Clough suggests, ask her whether she has received these mailings. The administrator is typically an investment firm (such as Fidelity or Vanguard), bank, or life insurance company. If she has misplaced all her statements, and can't recall who the administrator is, she could try asking ex-colleagues who the administrator is so that she could contact them directly.