PBI Research Services

What PBI Research Services does

PBI Research Services (legally Pension Benefit Information, LLC) is a privately held, U.S.-based B2B data services company serving the pension and insurance industries. Founded approximately four decades ago (reported founding dates of 1980 and 1983), the company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with an additional office in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and employs an estimated 51-100 people. It provides death audit, participant/beneficiary locate, beneficiary research, and uncashed check (treasury) management services to large pension plans, insurance companies, third-party administrators, and financial institutions, helping them reduce overpayments to decedents, locate missing participants, and meet DOL and ERISA compliance obligations.

Its core products are CertiDeath (death audit, launched 2019) and CertiCensus (launched 2021, positioned as the industry's first single-source proactive pension plan population management platform), complemented by CertiCensus Certified (2023 documentation/certification tier), the upcoming CertiSearch participant locate service, and standalone Death Audit, Locate, Treasury Management, and BeneSearch offerings. The technology rests on proprietary matching algorithms operating across approximately 26,000 integrated databases, including what the company describes as the largest and most comprehensive obituary database. CertiDeath is claimed to identify 96.5% of deaths with 99.9% accuracy versus an industry average of roughly 70%, using probabilistic matching on personally identifiable information (name, date of birth, SSN, address). The company holds SSAE 18 SOC 2, Type II certification.

The business model is subscription-recurring for its core death audit and population management services (with weekly death audits and quarterly address verifications), and professional-services-based for participant locate and check reissue work. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is quote-based, tailored to client population size and service scope. Go-to-market is direct enterprise field sales with dedicated account managers, secure client-portal onboarding, and top-of-funnel demand generation through webinars, blog content, and the company website. PBI reports a 98% product renewal rate and states it has helped clients uncover over $1 billion in overpayments since CertiDeath's 2019 launch.

Name

PBI Research Services

Legal name

Pension Benefit Information, LLC

Website

https://pbinfo.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

PBI Research Services provides death audit, participant/beneficiary locate, and uncashed check management services to large pension plans, insurance companies, and third-party administrators, using proprietary matching algorithms across roughly 26,000 integrated databases to reduce overpayments and ensure compliance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Death Audit Services: PBI provides death audit services to identify decedents in pension plan and insurance company populations. This is an ongoing service with regular audit cycles (weekly death audits, quarterly address verifications).
2. Population Management Services: CertiCensus provides comprehensive pension plan population management including participant monitoring, beneficiary research, and compliance reporting. Services are delivered on a subscription basis with ongoing weekly and quarterly processing.
3. Participant Locate Services: Services to locate missing plan participants and beneficiaries, including check reissue management for uncashed distribution checks.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

PBI Research Services provides death audit, participant locate, beneficiary research, and uncashed check management services to U.S. pension plans, insurance companies, third-party administrators, and financial institutions. Its flagship offerings—CertiDeath and the CertiCensus population management platform—leverage proprietary algorithms and 26,000 integrated databases to identify 96.5% of deaths with 99.9% accuracy, helping clients eliminate overpayments to decedents, locate missing participants, and meet DOL/ERISA compliance requirements.

Product overview

PBI Research Services offers a unified product portfolio centered on proactive pension plan management and participant data services. The core platform is CertiCensus, an integrated population management solution that combines death audit (CertiDeath), participant locate (CertiSearch), beneficiary research, address verification, and participant communications into a single service. This is complemented by standalone Death Audit and Locate Services, Treasury Management for uncashed check handling, and BeneSearch for beneficiary location. The company also offers CertiCensus Certified as a premium tier providing enhanced audit documentation aligned with DOL standards.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CertiCensus: Single-source proactive pension plan population management platform that helps pension plans reduce costs, eliminate overpayments, ensure regulatory compliance and mitigate cybersecurity risk.
• CertiDeath
• CertiSearch

Products and services

• CertiCensus The industry's first single-source proactive pension plan population management platform for pension plans; provides continuous participant monitoring, comprehensive reporting, and a full audit trail, including decedent identification, missing participant/beneficiary location, PII updates, required participant communications, and returned mail management.
• CertiDeath Death audit product that identifies decedents among pension plan participants, annuity holders, and insurance policyholders with 96.5% identification and 99.9% accuracy, using proprietary algorithms and the largest obituary database network.
• CertiSearch Participant locate service that uses proprietary data systems and expert researchers to find missing pension plan participants and beneficiaries.
• CertiCensus Certified Premium certification tier for CertiCensus customers providing enhanced verification, documentation, and audit-ready reporting aligned with DOL guidance for pension plan participant data management.
• Death Audit Services Standalone death audit service identifying decedents among pension plan participants, insurance policyholders, and other benefit plan populations to prevent overpayments and ensure compliance.
• Locate Services Standalone service for locating missing pension plan participants and beneficiaries for pension plans, insurance companies, and other benefit plan sponsors.
• Treasury Management Uncashed check management service handling stale-dated distribution checks and reissuing payments to participants, including check reissue response handling via mail and online.
• Beneficiary Research (BeneSearch) Research service to locate beneficiaries who may be entitled to benefits from deceased participants' pension or benefit plans.

Quantifiable outcome

• Identifies 96.5% of deaths with 99.9% accuracy vs industry average of 70%
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• LexisNexis Risk Solutions: LexisNexis Risk Solutions aggregates the largest commercial death records and identity data assets in the US and sells verification and locates services to insurers, pension plans, and financial institutions—directly overlapping PBI's CertiDeath and CertiSearch offerings.
• TransUnion: TransUnion's Public Records and consumer identity bureau data underpin deceased-flag and skip-trace services used by insurers and benefits administrators, making it one of the most direct large-scale competitors to PBI's death-audit and locate product lines.

Broad incumbents

• Equifax: Equifax Workforce Solutions (formerly TALX) provides employment, income, and identity verification services that include deceased-records screening to insurance, pension, and government customers—adjacent to PBI's offerings within a much broader data-services franchise.
• Aon: Aon (including its legacy Hewitt Associates retirement business) is a top-tier benefits consulting and pension administration firm that buys death-audit and locate services for plan sponsor clients—comparable as both a partner channel and adjacent incumbent in the same pension services ecosystem.
• Mercer: Mercer (Marsh McLennan) provides large-scale pension and benefits administration and consulting, making it a direct channel for similar B2B services such as PBI's and a comparable fiduciary-administration incumbent.
• WTW: WTW (Willis Towers Watson) operates a major retirement and benefits administration practice and consumes death-audit-style services on behalf of corporate plan sponsors, placing it adjacent to PBI within the pension data services value chain.
• Milliman: Milliman is a leading actuarial and consulting firm advising pension plans and insurers on mortality and data integrity issues, making it a comparable specialist advisor that often recommends death-audit vendors like PBI.
• Fidelity Employer Services: Fidelity Workplace Investing is one of the largest US defined contribution and pension administrators and handles recordkeeping, compliance, and participant services that overlap with the data-quality problems PBI solves.
• Verisk: Verisk provides analytics and data services to the insurance industry (including mortality and fraud analytics) that overlap with PBI's death verification and beneficiary research use cases, though within a much broader insurance analytics portfolio.

Others

• SS&C Technologies: SS&C provides back-office software and administration for retirement plans, asset managers, and insurers—an enabling, ecosystem-level participant rather than a direct death-audit competitor, but comparable in serving the same plan-sponsor buyer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/pbinfo

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PBI Research Services