Mrs. A was a moderate-income 67-year-old widow. Her late husband had worked at the Bellcore Research Center in Lisle, Illinois, for 15 years, from 1980 to 1995. Bellcore was part of the Bell System, and went through many subsequent changes in ownership and identity after her husband’s employment ended. It was acquired provisionally by SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation), then Telcordia Technologies, and much later by Ericsson. Each of these changes involved geographical relocations as well.

Mrs. A’s husband had died in 2002 at the age of 52, so he never received the pension he had earned from this employment. She had a condolence letter that she had received from “Telcordia Technologies, an SAIC Company” in 2003 telling her that she would be eligible for a survivor benefit of $340. monthly in November 2015, which is when her late husband would have turned 65. Of course, in 2015, she could not find Telcordia or her late husband’s pension plan.

After opening the case and investigating the multiple changes in ownership and location, we were able to locate Mrs. A’s survivor benefit at Ericsson, the successor. As a result, she has begun receiving survivor benefit from the pension her husband had earned. The expected value of these benefits over her lifetime is over $81,000.