I have only been doing retirement benefit administration for about three years now. The company I work for continues to have problems with participants not cashing their monthly annuity pension checks. We are left wondering if they are deceased, lost the check, etc. It takes a great deal of time to locate each participant (if they are alive) and find out why they are not cashing their check/s? Can we legally stop their pension checks until they contact us? Many of our pension participant refuse to use electronic funds transfers (direct deposit). Any suggestions are welcomed....

IRS regulations and rulings require that vested benefits be paid to participants except where the benefits can be suspended because of a return to service. The only thing you can do is offer a cash bonus or incentive to participants to sign up for direct deposit- which they already use for their SS benfits.