Consumer Agenda for Retirement Security

Initiative #1: Promote a more adequate and secure private retirement income system

D. Collect data critical for policy research and participants searching for “lost” plans.

The primary vehicle used by the Labor Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to collect data on the effectiveness of various retirement policies is the Form 5500, which plans use to report financial information.  The current form does not elicit important information that would help evaluate current retirement policy and the efficacy of the law.  The Form also does not gather information that might help participants track down their plans when businesses have changed their names, moved, merged or been bought or sold. 

In recent years, changes have been made to the Form 5500, reducing the type of information that is collected.  For example, the elimination of data was given as the reason for a major change in the definition of “active participant” in the Labor Department’s most recent Private Pension Plan Bulletin: Abstract of Form 5500 Annual Reports.  Starting this year, “active participants” are defined as including all employees offered the opportunity to participate in a private retirement plan, rather than employees who actually participate.  Since this Bulletin is heavily used by the media and policy makers, the change will significantly overstate the number of people participating in plans.1

The new Administration should seek input from researchers and consumer groups on data to be collected in the Form.  

Learn more about the other initiatives in the Consumer Agenda for Retirement Security.

Initiative 1: Promote a more adequate and secure private retirement income system.
Initiative 2: Empower workers to promote their own retirement security.
Initiative 3: Improve retirement savings plans.
Initiative 4: Improve traditional and hybrid pension plans.
Initiative 5: Make retirement plans fairer for workers and their spouses.

Print the Consumer Agenda for Retirement Security [PDF].