How we search

Every fact on Attovar comes from public filings or from a company's own website. Here is what we read, how we connect it, and what we can't see.

What we read

• Form 5500 and 5500-SF. Almost every private workplace retirement plan files one each year with the U.S. Department of Labor. We read every year from 2009 on, including corrected (amended) reports and plans missing from the data file most tools use.
• Their schedules. Transfers of money to other plans, the companies paid to keep a plan's records, insurers, and the auditor's notes on plan rules such as small-balance payouts.
• PBGC's list of pension plans it took over.
• Phone numbers only from each company's own website, with the date we checked.

How we connect it

• A plan is followed year to year by its employer ID and plan number, and by its name and size when those change.
• Money that moved is shown only when the sending plan's report and the receiving plan's report agree.
• Your years decide which plan covered you and which company kept the records then and now.

What we can't see

• Anyone's balance. Filings are plan-level; only the plan can say what is in your account.
• Government and most church plans, which don't file these reports. Public jobs have their own retirement systems.
• Records companies for many plans under 100 people, which don't file the schedule that names them.

What we never do

We never ask for or keep Social Security numbers, birth dates or account numbers. We take no referral fees and no affiliate money, and money never passes through us. Attovar is not part of any plan, employer or government agency.

Data is rebuilt from the Labor Department's files with each release. Found a mistake? Email hello@attovar.com.