https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/business/paychex-401k-rollover-checks.html

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Business|His Life Savings Were Mailed to Him by Paper Check. Now,
It's Gone.
  
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/business/
paychex-401k-rollover-checks.html

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How Did This Happen?

His Life Savings Were Mailed to Him by Paper Check. Now, It's Gone.

A thief stole 401(k) checks out of the mail. But why was Paychex, a
major industry player, using paper at all given how often check fraud
happens?

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An illustration shows a letter carrier walking along with a mail
pouch, unaware that checks are flying out of the pouch.
Credit...Alain Pilon
Ron Lieber

By Ron Lieber

This is the first dispatch in "How Did This Happen?," a monthly
series examining confounding financial quagmires sent to us by
readers. Our mission is to explain the seemingly unexplainable.

May 17, 2025

Q: Last year, I lost my entire 401(k) -- $114,000 -- after Paychex
mailed me physical rollover checks instead of doing a secure
transfer. The checks were intercepted and fraudulently cashed.

I'm now in federal court trying to hold Paychex accountable, but this
experience has made it painfully clear how little protection exists
for consumers in situations like mine. For some reason, this outdated
and insecure method remains standard practice in the retirement
industry.

-- Dylan Handy, New York City

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This is a tale of fraud, responsibility and process. Let's take them
in order.

First comes fraud. The interceptor and casher whom Mr. Handy refers
to is a thief still on the loose.

In 2023, Mr. Handy changed jobs and was trying to move his 401(k)
money from his old workplace plan to his new one. Paychex, which
helped manage his old plan, arranged for him to get two checks in the
mail -- one for his 401(k) and one for a Roth version. Then, he was
supposed to send the checks on to his new plan administrator with a
rollover form. He did that, or so he thought.

In fact, a thief somehow took the checks. That thief (or those
thieves) took one check to Citizens Bank and another to Chase and
successfully cashed or deposited them.

Tell us about your financial dilemma.

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