Can somebody lose a 401(k) account? Yes, indeed, almost 30 million "somebodies" have lost their 401(k)s.

Using Department of Labor filings, Capitalize, a fintech company that helps people locate old 401(k)s, estimated that there are about 29.2 million forgotten or left-behind 401(k) accounts involving approximately $1.65 trillion in assets, as of 2023 (tinyurl.com/4xtwhzvx).

How can someone lose a 401(k)? Quoting a U.S. Department of Labor fact sheet, "Workers may lose track of their retirement plans after they change jobs or after a prior employer merges with another company or goes out of business. Retirement plans may lose track of people who are owed benefits due to incomplete recordkeeping, workers and beneficiaries not updating their contact information, and other reasons" (tinyurl.com/2bc5rmj3).

If you think you may have lost track of a retirement account, I have some good news to share.

Thanks to the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, we now have the "Retirement Savings Lost & Found Database," with the mission of helping individuals find missing retirement accounts.

The SECURE 2.0 Act called for an online searchable database to be created that would allow a retirement saver "to locate the ... contact information for the administrator of any plan with respect to which the individual is or was a participant or beneficiary, sufficient to allow the individual to locate the individual's plan in order to make a claim for benefits" (tinyurl.com/te95azmv).

That database is now available for you to use. It provides a new pathway for finding retirement money that might have been "lost" somewhere during your working career. The program "finds" 401(k) and other defined contribution plans, as well as pensions (defined benefit plans).

Who would benefit from using the website? People who worked for a private-sector employer or were members of a union that sponsored a retirement plan (but not those who were employed by a government entity or a religious organization). Additionally, those eligible needed to qualify for retirement benefits from the employer or union.

The database is located at the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) website (tinyurl.com/zzy2kues).

To access the database, you will need to "register" through Login.gov, a government identity verification tool that is used to sign in to participating government agencies. You can use an existing Login.gov account to access the Lost and Found database, but you might need to provide additional information. Quoting the EBSA website, a Login.gov account requires the following information:

-- Legal first and last name

-- Date of birth

-- Social Security number

-- A mobile device

-- Front and back photo of an active driver's license

Once you verify your account using Login.gov (which might take a few minutes to complete), you can access the Lost and Found database by entering your Social Security number and clicking "Search."

The database will then display a "Results Summary" list of retirement plans linked to your Social Security number so you can review the details. Included in each listing is the plan name, the plan administrator's name and the contact information. There is also a "Full Results" section with information received from the Social Security Administration, details of any pensions (payment frequency, defined benefit amount) and the total value of a retirement account.

Note that the EBSA "has taken great care to ensure that participant and beneficiary data submitted to the Lost and Found is secure and confidential," adding that if plan fiduciaries "prudently and loyally follow the data transmittal instructions, they will have satisfied their duty under ERISA section 404 to ensure proper mitigation of cybersecurity risks" (tinyurl.com/2u5wkyrr).

However, those who have cybersecurity concerns can choose to have information about themselves removed from the Lost and Found database. They can use an opt-out online form, which does not require Login.gov credentials, at tinyurl.com/mskspnrk.

If you think there might be a possibility that you left a retirement plan behind, it is worth the time to access the Lost and Found database to see if you can track it down there. A few minutes of work could lead you to a "buried treasure."

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Preparing for the new year, I came across an interesting twist on resolutions: "65 Achievable New Year's Resolutions You'll Actually Keep," a great article on the Good Housekeeping website (tinyurl.com/3b4du59a). Sixty-five is a bit much, but I love the idea of resolutions "you'll actually keep."

I'll share just a few of the 65, and yes, I could potentially see myself keeping these resolutions:

-- No. 28: Listen to novels while you work out.

-- No. 44: Play upbeat music.

-- No. 64: Make your home more fragrant.

Those should be easy, yes? But why is it that only 9% of people successfully keep their New Year's resolutions, according to Insideout Mastery (tinyurl.com/2nsk3cme)?

Since I'm a skeptic by training due to my law and money-management background -- which includes running my practice during four bear markets and five bulls -- and through experience in alternative dispute resolution as a former arbitrator and mediator for FINRA, the financial services regulator, I usually resist empty promises. That's what a New Year's resolution seems to be, a promise that may not be kept.

But, the Good Housekeeping article made me think. As authors Zee Krstic and Cameron Jenkins point out, "The key to setting good goals is making them aspirational and yet attainable at the same time -- something you want to work toward, and you can honestly see yourself achieving."

Perhaps, just perhaps, a New Year's financial resolution can be stated in such a way to be achievable -- if it touched the senses perhaps (listening to music; enjoying a pleasant fragrance)? What if the resolution were time-limited so that discipline to stay the course could be achieved? What if it eliminated the need for discipline? Would it help if it were simple enough to accomplish, not overwhelming and effortless to keep on top of?

Can achievable New Year's resolutions work with financial matters? Could the resolution be as easy as a rule against borrowing money to buy things for yourself for the month of January? Or, having an automatic 10% deduction from each paycheck put into a retirement account? Or, taking an afternoon the first Saturday of each month to talk with children about just one financial literacy lesson?

Could resolutions help allay financial stress, anxiety or insecurity?

Motley Fool Money's 2024 Financial Stress, Anxiety, and Mental Health Survey of 2,000 American adults found that 54% of respondents had financial anxiety or stress three or more days a week (tinyurl.com/mwe3h667).

Northwestern Mutual's 2024 Planning & Progress Study, released earlier this year, surveyed more than 4,500 adults ages 18 and older and reported that 33% of adults said they did not feel financially secure -- the highest level of insecurity in the study's history, which began in 2009 (tinyurl.com/4kja77ue).

Or what about those living with financial regret (78% of more than 1,000 adult Americans surveyed by Debt.com, with 21% saying the regret is "charging up too much credit card debt" -- tinyurl.com/yc3nsk2p)?

Fidelity Investments' 16th Annual New Year's Financial Resolutions Study indicated that 2025 would be the year of "living practically" (tinyurl.com/bdwc5kz4). Among the top concerns listed by the 3,008 U.S. adults ages 18 and older were unexpected expenses (38%), the effects of inflation (37%) and economic uncertainty or recession (32%).

For those who don't normally spend time and effort on organizing their financial lives, a resolution can be a start, especially if it's triggered by preventing regret. Would it help to travel forward in time in order to get perspective by looking back to today? Is there anything the time traveler would learn about taking action today to avoid regret?

Perhaps that would be a good exercise for anyone to do as the new year unfolds -- to contemplate today's actions through the lens of tomorrow's insight.

Write to me (readers@juliejason.com) if you have a story to share about financial resolutions that you are glad to have kept.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

If you set up a 529 education plan for your children or grandchildren that is no longer needed for education expenses, there is a new game in town. A law that went into effect this year permits 529 money to be rolled into a Roth IRA. That is, you can have money that you don't want to keep in the 529 transferred into a Roth IRA without triggering an income tax (or penalty) on the withdrawal from the 529. Of course, there are strings and limits.

The 529 Roth IRA rollover is new for 2024, enacted as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act (signed into law at the end of 2022 --tinyurl.com/5ehrjeyj). We haven't seen any IRS guidance as of yet, so some questions will remain unanswered until that happens. For now, the best resource is the statute itself.

The act outlines six key points when it comes to making this type of conversion:

1. The 529 account must have been opened for 15 years before the rollover can be made. (Note: The statute does not state that the 15-year period is NOT reset by a 529-to-529 rollover or a change in beneficiaries. Will the 15-year count have to start over if there is a 529-to-529 rollover or a beneficiary change?)

2. No 529 fund contributions (or the earnings for those contributions) for the past five years can be rolled over to the Roth IRA. (Note: Tracking may be an issue. "529 Plans are not required under existing law to track the information necessary to determine what portion of earnings in the account are attributable to contributions made five years or more prior to the date of distribution," states a letter sent to the IRS by the Nebraska assistant state treasurer on behalf of the College Savings Plans Network -- tinyurl.com/59yrmyxv.)

3. The rollover must be done through a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer from the 529 account to a Roth IRA that is for the designated beneficiary of the 529 account.

4. There is a maximum yearly amount that can be rolled over. For 2024, the amount is $7,000, which is the current Roth contribution limit. However, the amount is reduced if the beneficiary himself made contributions to another IRA in 2024.

5. The beneficiary is not subject to an income limitation, in contrast to a contribution an individual can make on his own into a Roth IRA. (This is different from the general rules for a Roth IRA. Under those rules, for example, a single person who has a modified adjusted gross income of $161,000 or more in 2024 cannot contribute to a Roth IRA -- tinyurl.com/txftjz2s.)

6. There is also an aggregate limit of $35,000 total that can be rolled over from the 529 to the Roth IRA.

At this time, it is unclear whether there is an earned income requirement that applies to Roth contributions. That is, if the beneficiary did not earn $7,000 in 2024, can he roll over $7,000 from the 529 to the Roth? See Fidelity's "How unused 529 assets can help with retirement planning" (tinyurl.com/36cvrcws).

As mentioned earlier, the IRS has not issued official guidance or regulations related to the new 529 option, according to an IRS spokesperson.

However, the IRS has noted on its "Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 (2024)" webpage that the rollovers "are reported on Form 5498 as Roth IRA contributions and not as rollover contributions" (tinyurl.com/2chntkj4).

If you are considering a 529 rollover, you will need a form from the trustee of your 529 account. You can see an example of a Fidelity Investments form for a 529 account transfer to an account outside the Fidelity system at tinyurl.com/3vpadh5v.

The form includes a cautionary paragraph that is worth noting: "It is your responsibility to ensure that your withdrawals comply with IRS requirements. Non-qualified withdrawals could trigger IRS fees or penalties. At the end of each tax year, Fidelity will send a 1099-Q to the IRS, and to the participant or beneficiary, reporting any withdrawals. You may want to consult a tax advisor."

For further reading, look for the upcoming 2024 IRS Publication 970; see Chapter 7. Another resource is The Tax Adviser article "A retirement savings head start: 529-to-Roth rollovers" (tinyurl.com/4wmdddca).

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION