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"Potential Private Retirement Benefit Information" letter from Social Security
(Feb 13, 2024) From the independent association for former employees of HP and HPE -- and those in the process of leaving.
Received a "Potential Private Retirement Benefit" letter from Social Security? It shows your last transaction ("Year Reported.") Look up the "Type of Benefit" and "Payment Frequency" codes on the back. Details below.
How the Social Security letter is generated.
Every year, administrators of retirement plans (such as Fidelity) upload a summary of each participant's transactions to the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the US Department of Labor agency that regulates retirement plans.
When you apply for Social Security benefits, the Social Security Administration searches decades of Department of Labor retirement plan records for your Social Security number -- and may send you a cryptic letter. This is a well-meaning, but confusing, effort by Social Security to remind people of possibly-forgotten retirement accounts.
The key word is "potential" -- in most cases, the account mentioned was resolved upon leaving an employer -- which was covered in the documents you received at that time.
Look at the "Year Reported" -- and look up both the "Type of Benefit" and "Payment Frequency" codes (given on the front of the letter) in the two tables on the back of the letter.
"I had rolled over the pension like 15 years ago!" --Retiree
However, some alumni have found lost accounts -- especially those who have moved. "I'm all registered and it was easy. Thanks so much!" --Retiree
This page has advice from the independent HP Alumni Association (which is not officially endorsed or supported) on how to decode and who to contact your letter -- and how to investigate a retirement benefit plan.
Every few years, it is a good idea run an "unclaimed property" search. Companies -- including financial institutions -- are required to turn over unclaimed property to the state after a specific time period, which varies from state to state, as little as two years in some states. Easy to do: https://www.hpalumni.org/Unclaimed
(Best official explanation is the Employee
Benefits Security Administration's "FAQs on SSA
Potential Private Retirement Benefit Information"
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/EBSA/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/faqs/ssa-potential-private-benefit-information-notice.pdf
)
It was probably resolved when you left. How to decode the letter and who to contact
Step 1. Look at the "Year Reported" -- the date of the last report received by the Dept. of Labor about your participation in that plan. (The date shown may be a year after the actual transaction.)
...and at the "Plan Name"
What was going on with your job that year and the previous year?
The report date may be due to a post-acquisition or post-spinoff cleanup. Former Compaq, DEC, and Tandem employees may get reports dated 2002, the year that Compaq was sold to HP. Former EDS employees may get reports dated 2009, the year after EDS was sold to HP.
Step 2. Check the "Type of Benefit" and "Payment Frequency" letter codes against the list on the back of the letter.
Type of Benefit:
A -- A single payment of a lump sum [Per member
reports: you rolled to a different plan, bought an annuity, or took cash.]
B -- Annuity payable over a fixed number of years
C -- Life annuity
D -- Life annuity with period certain
E -- Cash refund life annuity
F -- Modified cash refund life annuity
G -- Joint and last survivor annuity
M -- Other (Type of annuity not reported) [Per member
reports: You left before vesting in that plan.]
Payment Frequency:
A -- Lump Sum [Per member reports: you rolled to a different plan, bought an annuity, or took cash.]
B -- Annually
C -- Semi-Annually
D -- Quarterly
E -- Monthly
M -- Other (Payment frequency not reported) [Per
member reports: You left before vesting in that plan.]
This will correlate with your annual statements from the plan administrator and the documents you received when you left that employer.
Who to contact
The "Plan Administrator and Address" is usually invalid -- a company address at the time the report was filed with the Dept. of Labor.
HP Breakup. On Nov 1, 2015, the legal name of the Hewlett-Packard Company was changed to HP Inc. and a new, completely separate company – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (green-rectangle logo; no hyphen) – was spun out. Portions of HPE were later spun out into DXC and Micro Focus: HP Breakup
HP Inc. In general, responsibility for original commitments to former U.S. employees of Compaq, DEC, EDS, etc. remain with HP Inc. – regardless of whether their last business unit ended up in HP or HPE. (Canada and UK: HPE. Other countries vary.
Country-by-country details)
- US: Pension and 401(k) accounts. Fidelity is the primary administrator. 1-800-457-4015 (If no password, keep hitting #.) (Outside US 1-508-787-9902 collect.) https://nb.fidelity.com (Members advise that local Fidelity offices are focused on sales.)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Includes companies that HPE acquired (Cray, Juniper, Nimble, etc.)
- US: Pension and 401(k) accounts. Fidelity is the primary administrator. 1-800-409-4015 (If no password, keep hitting #.) (Outside US 1-508-787-9902 collect.) https://nb.fidelity.com (Members advise that local Fidelity offices are focused on sales.)
If the Plan Name is "EDS Payroll Stock Ownership Plan" -- go to EDS Stock, which describes how EDS stock was retired.)
Info for those who worked at: Agilent Autonomy Compaq DEC DXC EDS HP HPE Keysight Micro Focus Perspecta Tandem Other acquisitions and spinoffs
If you aren't sure what happened...
...especially if you
worked for a predecessor company such as Compaq, DEC, EDS, etc. How
to investigate a retirement benefit plan. Topics: Check for lost property. Which company is
currently responsible for the benefit. How to contact the current administrators. Surviving spouse
provisions. Legal postal contact addresses.
https://www.hpalumni.org/RetirementPlans-Investigate
Official explanation...
The U.S. Department of Labor regulates
private pension plans -- and keeps detailed pension records. Here's the
official document explaining the letter -- which also covers other types
of pension plans that are not relevant to HP-related employment:
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/faqs/ssa-potential-private-benefit-information-notice.pdf
At the end, it says: "Need assistance from a Benefits Advisor? Contact
our Benefits Advisors electronically at
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/ask-aquestion/ask-ebsa
or by calling toll-free 1-866-444-3272."
Examples
Code A.
Money moved out of the specific plan -- rolled the money into a different plan, bought an annuity, or took the cash. ( Click to see this example letter with key points highlighted.)
- Year Reported 2000. "HP INC. 401 K PLAN"
- Type of Benefit "A" -- decoded on the reverse of the letter to mean "A single payment of a lump sum."
The person in this example remembers rolling over their 401(k) when they left HP in 2000, which would have been reported to the Dept. of Labor at that time. [ jpg of front jpg of back ]
Code M
Left employer before plan vested.
- Year Reported 1994. "E D S Deferred Compensation Plan"
- Type of Benefit "M" -- decoded on the reverse of the letter to mean "Unknown."
- "Plan Administrator and Address" EDS sold the Forest Lane site in 1996, two years after that report to the Dept. of Labor.
The person in this example worked for EDS for only a short time. [ pdf jpg ]
Related topics...
Stock: You may now have stock in HP, HPE, Agilent, Keysight, or DXC in various accounts – and may not have received cash payouts for Micro Focus and Perspecta. Due to spinoffs and splits, current cost basis depends on when you acquired each block of shares. Members have found that plan administrators, transfer agents, and brokerages vary significantly in how (or if) they track gain/loss and cost basis for the many complex HP-related stock events -- and what (if anything) they report to the IRS. Stock Recovery and Cost Basis
Other benefits -- such as Social Security, Medicare, annual enrollment, COBRA, troubleshooting retiree health coverage, etc:. HPAlumni Benefits Menu
Question? Email: info@hpalumni.org
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