Practical question and please don't tell me to "check with Social Security" — I have, three times. My father died in 2022 and I'm trying to find out whether he had a pension from a company that was sold three times.

All the details, because I've learned the vague version gets vague answers.

My father worked for a manufacturer in Indiana from 1971 to 1994. Twenty-three years. Hourly, then a lead position. He was laid off in 1994 at forty-nine during a restructuring, and he worked other jobs until 2009 and then collected Social Security.

He always said — and he said it the same way for thirty years, which is why I believe it — that he "had something coming" from that company at sixty-five. He turned sixty-five in 2010. He never received anything, and when I asked him about it in about 2015 he said he'd "looked into it" and that it was "gone."

He died in March 2022. My mother died in 2019. I'm the executor.

In his papers I have: a 1979 benefits booklet for the plan, with a plan name on it. Two annual statements, 1986 and 1991, showing an accrued monthly benefit at normal retirement age — the 1991 one says a number that would be meaningful. A 1994 separation letter that mentions "vested pension benefits" without a figure.

And his W-2s for most of those years.

What I've done:

Called Social Security — they confirmed earnings history, which I already had, and said pensions aren't theirs, which is correct.

Searched the company name. It was acquired in 1997, that acquirer was bought in 2004, and that entity was broken up in 2011. The current owner of the brand is a company that told me by email that they "did not assume legacy pension obligations."

Searched the PBGC's unclaimed pension database for his name. Nothing.

Called the PBGC's general line and was told that if the plan was never terminated and trusteed by them, they'd have no record, and that an ongoing plan would still be with whoever holds it.

Wrote to the Department of Labor's EBSA regional office in August. No response in ten weeks.

My questions, in order:

One. Is there a way to find out definitively what happened to a specific named plan between 1994 and now? I've read about Form 5500 filings being public. How far back do those actually go online, and can you search by plan name rather than by sponsor EIN?

I have the plan name from the 1979 booklet and I have an EIN from a W-2.

Two. If the plan was merged into an acquirer's plan in 1997, is the acquirer's successor obligated, and how do I make that a question they have to answer rather than one they can decline by email? Is there a formal written request with a deadline attached?

Three. The 1991 statement. Does a document like that have any standing as evidence of a vested benefit, or is it just a historical curiosity?

Four. My father said in 2015 that it was "gone." Is it possible he received a lump-sum cashout in the nineties and spent it and was embarrassed? I'd rather know that than keep pulling. Is there any way to check whether a distribution was made — a 1099-R from 1995 or so would be in his tax records, which I don't have that far back.

Five, and this is the real one: has anybody actually recovered a pension like this? Not "my friend heard" — did you do it, and what was the sequence, and how long?

I want to be clear that this is not primarily about money. If it's four hundred a month in a survivor benefit my mother never claimed, that's a number with a meaning. But mostly I want to know whether a man said the same true sentence for thirty years and nobody paid it.