Toys “R” Us Will Open 120 Stores Nine Years After Bankruptcy. Former Workers May Still Have 401k Money Waiting in the Federal Lost-and-Found

Picture a hypothetical 64-year-old who worked the stockroom at Toys “R” Us before the retailer’s infamous 2017 bankruptcy. He sees a headline this week that the brand is opening 120 new stores. Over the years, he left a modest 401(k) behind, moved twice, and stopped getting statements years ago. The stores are not his old employer resurrected. But seeing the name is a nudge to go look for money that may silently quietly followed the plan through termination, transfer, or an automatic rollover.

He is also within a few years of full retirement age (FRA). Whatever he finds, or does not find, in that old account will shape when he claims Social Security and how much of the check he keeps after taxes.

Why Claiming Age Matters More Than the Balance

For a worker born in 1962, FRA is 67. Each year he delays past that adds roughly 8% to his benefit for life, up to age 70. On a $2,000 monthly benefit, waiting from 67 to 70 lifts the check to about $2,480, and that difference compounds with every yearly raise. The 2027 COLA is tracking toward the mid-3% range so a larger base earns a larger raise too.

Here is where a recovered 401(k) becomes a Social Security decision. A rediscovered balance can be the bridge money that lets him wait. A $10,000 balance that remained invested from 2017 through 2026 and averaged a 6% annual return would have grown to about $16,900 before fees. That is an illustration, not a promise, since the real result depends on the investments and fees. Still, it could cover several months of expenses or supplement other savings while he delays claiming.

How the Withdrawal Would Be Taxed Alongside Benefits

A pull from a traditional 401(k) or rollover IRA is ordinary income, and it also feeds the formula that decides how much of a Social Security check is taxable. For a single filer, combined income above $34,000 exposes up to 85% of benefits to tax. Those thresholds have not been adjusted for inflation since the early 1990s, so a pension, part-time wages, or IRA withdrawals can push more retirees across them.

Drawing on the old 401(k) before claiming can keep the withdrawal from stacking on top of Social Security. But the timing still needs to be modeled: a large withdrawal can affect health-insurance subsidies before 65 or Medicare premiums two years later. Finding the account early gives him room to plan that sequence rather than react to it.

Where to Actually Look

A workplace 401(k)’s assets are generally held in trust, separate from the employer’s operating money, so a bankruptcy does not turn participant balances into cash for creditors. The balance may still sit with the plan, have moved to a successor administrator, been rolled automatically into an IRA, or mailed as a check to an outdated address. Here’s where to hunt:

1. Sign in through Login.gov to the Labor Department’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found, launched under SECURE 2.0. It connects a worker to plans that may owe benefits, but does not hold the money or display a balance.
2. Dig through old emails, tax records, and W-2s for the plan’s exact legal name, including any subsidiaries or predecessor companies.
3. Search the Labor Department’s Abandoned Plan database and old Form 5500 filings if the Lost and Found comes up empty. A missing result is not proof no account exists.
4. Call an Employee Benefits Security Administration adviser at 1-866-444-3272 for help locating the former plan administrator.
5. If money surfaces, use a direct rollover into an IRA or current employer plan to preserve the tax deferral. A check made out personally triggers withholding and starts a 60-day clock.

One Shot Wonder

Confirm the balance, investments, fees, and beneficiary designation before requesting a distribution. Cashing the account out in a single year can push income into a higher bracket and make more of any Social Security benefit taxable, all in one shot. It also removes the option to use the money as bridge income for delaying benefits, which is often worth more than the tax savings alone.

Toys “R” Us is bringing an old name back to shopping centers. For some former workers, it may also bring back the name of a retirement account they stopped looking for. Everyone’s numbers land differently, so treat the figures here as a starting frame rather than a final destination.

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