Pension/401k

[Ninjalove]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Washington State

I'm about to close out an estate account for my late father, and was just asked a question I dont know that answer to, so hopefully someone here can help.

He passed away 6 months after retirement from Alcoa, and I was just asked by my mother (they were divorced), if I had ever been contacted about his pension, retirement benefits, or 401K, which I havent.

Do these actually thing that actually get passed on to the children, and if so, should they have contacted me about this already (its been over 2 years)? This is something that I have never thought of before, so I wanted some advice before I consider reaching out to the company about something I have no knowledge of.

Thanks in advance!

[cbg]

Do you know for certain if he even had any pension or 401k? Both of which are optional benefits which not all employers provide, and if they do, not all employees choose to (or are eligible to) participate. Additionally, depending on what election he made at retirement, not all pension benefits have a survivor option. In other words, even if he had a pension, that doesn't mean there was anything to pass on.

Do you know for certain that the employer was notified of his death?

IF he had any retirement benefits, AND IF his employer was notified of his death, AND IF you were named the beneficiary of any amounts therein, you would have been contacted, assuming they knew how to find you. If you were not the beneficiary, then whoever was, would be notified. If no beneficiary was listed, then the amounts would be payable to the estate via whatever name they had on file as next of kin.

Of course, as indicated above, even if there were benefits, all of it is dependent on (1st) their being notified of his death and (2nd) their having a current address on file for the beneficiaries. It couldn't hurt for you to give his employer a call. I've just been marginally involved in a case where we had a death benefit all processed and ready to go out, but no way to make contact with the beneficiary because we had no current address or phone number on file. It was by sheer accident that someone who knew the deceased happened to call on an unrelated question and we were able to get an address to send out a check we'd been holding since February.

Bottom line is; there may or may not have been any benefits; you may or may not have been the beneficiary if there were; they may not have known how to contact you if you were.