Retirement Fraud options

[Jwine92]

If my employer has been taking more out of my weekly paychecks than they have been forwarding to my retirement fund, could i have grounds to go after them for more than what they have actually taken from me? They have been known in the past to make so called "mistakes" on retirement funds before, and also took money out of my brothers checks for most of a year for an insurance plan that they never even set up for him in the first place. Now me and 3 of my co-workers are discovering that there are discrepancies between what we are paying into retirement and what is actually making it to our retirement funds. I have more than a couple reasons to think that there is shady business going on and i dont have any reason to believe that they arent intentionally stealing money from us. But i cant find any way to prove that they are doing it on purpose. How do i know if they are, and if they are, do we have any right to sue them for more than what we have actually lost?

 

[cbg]

This is not a DIY project. The laws regarding retirement plans are very complicated and there can be a number of reasons why the contributions aren't what you expect.

Quite frankly, the first thing I would recommend is that you discuss what you see as discrepancies with your Benefits office, who may refer you to your plan administrator. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I work in the Benefits office of my (very large) employer and I can think of a couple of reasons why it might look like not everything is being deposited, when actually it is.

So I would suggest that you first talk to your employer; then a representative of your plan administrator (this will NOT be someone who works for by your employer, but someone employed by Vanguard, TIAA-Cref, Fidelity, Transamerica, etc.) and review your transactions with them. If this is not an option for you, or if you are still not satisfied after the meeting, take your paystubs showing the deductions and your statements and consult with an attorney who is well versed in ERISA.