Putting aside a little time to track down old pensions could be an investment that’s well worth making.
If current life expectancies are anything to go by, one in four retirements might last between 27 and 29 years for someone aged 65 Footnote [1], therefore a long time. In comparison taking an hour to track down an old pension could help to make planning for those years a little bit easier.
According to data from the Pensions Policy Institute, people in the UK have lost track of as many as 2.8 million workplace pension pots, with a combined value of approximately £26.6 billion Footnote [2]. That money hasn’t disappeared, and it needn’t be hard to find – but rediscovering an old pension is something that some people may tend to put off, or perhaps think is more complicated than it actually is.
Losing track of a pension pot is something that often happens when people swap jobs, move house or when pension providers merge and scheme names change. It's easily done, but it's also easy to do something about it.
3 steps to rediscovering old pension pots
Starting up the process of finding a lost pension – or pensions – could take under an hour, and you can get plenty of support along the way.
- Go through your paperwork
You may have gone paperless these days, but chances are you’ll need to go old school to find evidence of schemes that go back a few years. It’s worth having a look through drawers and files. If you can't find anything, have a think about where you used to work and when. If you can't remember all the details, past or present CVs may help to find the dates you're looking for. - Find the contact details
You could get in touch with former employers’ HR departments to trace scheme details. Or you could simply visit the pension tracing service. They’ll help you to find contact details online. - Contact your old provider(s)
If they do have a record of a pension in your name, find out how much you have and request an up-to-date statement – the value could have changed significantly since you last paid into it. Finally, check if you can access your information online.
What you do then is up to you…
You can leave your pension scheme where it is - what you’ve built up still belongs to you, or you can normally move it to another pension scheme. There are many reasons why it might be a good idea to move your pension from one scheme to another. You might be able to get lower charges, or access to different options, investments and features.
But before you consider transferring pensions elsewhere, you need to know whether you’d be losing any benefits by doing so. Transferring isn’t the right choice for everyone, and you should be wary of scammers who might contact you with the promise of a free review or amazing returns. We’d always recommend that people should shop around carefully and get some financial advice before making any major decisions.
Whatever you decide to do, tracking down your old pensions is an easy way of rediscovering retirement savings that you may have put aside from previous employers or into a personal pension.
