A Third of Americans Say They’re Not Sure Where Some of Their Retirement Money Is

Changing jobs usually means a new badge, a new password and a new route to work. According to a new survey from Empower, it also leaves a lot of people unsure what happened to the retirement account they left behind.

In The Retirement Drift, released Oct. 19, 2026, 34% of U.S. adults said they may have retirement savings from a former employer that they have lost track of.¹ That “may” matters. As ConsumerAffairs notes, the figure reflects people’s uncertainty about their accounts, not a tally of missing money.⁴ The share was 50% for Gen Z and 45% for Millennials, compared with 30% for Gen X and 14% for Baby Boomers.²⁵

The useful news for anyone who has switched jobs a few times: an account you’ve lost track of is not money you’ve lost. Empower’s companion guide makes that point, then lists places to search and what you can do once you find it.²

Empower is a retirement recordkeeper and wealth manager that sells rollover and advisory services, so it has a commercial interest in the topic. Its online survey of 2,005 adults was fielded July 30 to Aug. 1, 2026, by an independent third-party panel provider and weighted to be nationally representative.¹ Most of the news coverage since has re-reported Empower’s numbers rather than running its own survey.

How old accounts get scattered

Empower calls this “retirement drift,” its own term for savings that end up spread across accounts from different employers as people change jobs.³ In the survey, 53% had changed employers three or more times and 27% had made at least five moves. And 39% said their savings are spread across accounts from different employers.¹ Overall, 41% were not confident they could locate all of their retirement savings.⁵

More than half, 54%, said managing retirement savings sits at the bottom of their financial to-do list. That is an odd spot for the item with the longest deadline. And 47% had put off something like a rollover because it felt overwhelming.¹

“Changing jobs is a normal part of a career, but our financial lives don’t always transition as neatly,” Jane Bartosik, SVP of Wealth Solutions at Empower, said in the company’s announcement. “These accounts can accumulate, making it harder to see your complete retirement picture and know what steps to take next.”¹

Respondents mostly said they wanted a map. Two-thirds (66%) wish someone had explained their options when they changed jobs, and 76% said clear, step-by-step guidance would make them more likely to act.¹ Empower’s guide also cites a 2024 GAO study that found 82% of 401(k) participants weren’t aware of all the distribution options available to them after leaving an employer.²

Where to look for an old 401(k)

Empower’s guide lists these starting points:²

• Your former employer’s HR department
• Your own records, such as old account statements and tax documents
• The Portability Services Network, for balances under $7,000
• The Department of Labor’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found database and its Abandoned Plan Program
• State unclaimed-property databases
• The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) search tool

The Lost and Found database was created under the SECURE 2.0 Act and went live in late December 2024. You search it through a Login.gov account that verifies your identity, and it lists matching plans along with the plan administrator’s contact information.⁶⁷ It has limits. It covers private-sector employer and union plans, including 401(k)s and pensions, but not IRAs, government-sponsored plans or some religious-organization plans. Some information may be outdated, and because plan administrators’ reporting started out voluntary, coverage can be incomplete.⁶⁷

What you can do once you find it

Empower’s guide describes four basic options:²

• Leave it in the old plan. This is generally allowed for balances above $7,000 under SECURE 2.0.
• Roll it into an IRA (an individual retirement account you control).
• Roll it into a new employer’s plan.
• Cash out all or part of it. That money is taxable and may bring a 10% penalty if you are under 59½.

Small balances follow their own rules. For $1,000 to $7,000, the old plan may automatically roll the money into an IRA. Under $1,000, it may simply mail a check.²

Empower’s guide also cites an industry estimate that about 32 million forgotten 401(k) accounts hold about $2.1 trillion.²