Trace your pot of gold
MORE THAN £19billion worth of pension pots have gone astray, with affected savers losing a thumping £13,000 each as a direct result.
Every month 10,000 people try to track down their missing pension, but most have no idea how to go about it and many give up.
Nobody likes to throw away good money but that is exactly what can happen if you do not keep track of all your workplace and personal pensions.
With the average person having 11 jobs over their working lifetime, losing track of one or two is easier than you might imagine.
Many lose touch when they change address and forget to tell their pension company, which is easily done given that on average we move home eight times during our lifetime.
Today is National Pension Tracing Day, which makes now the ideal time to check whether any of your retirement savings have gone missing, and start hunting for that buried treasure.
One in 30 people could be reunited with money they did not even know they had, and a good place to start is website Nationalpensiontracingday.co.uk.
Alan Morahan, employee benefits managing director at advisory group Punter Southall Aspire, which founded the
initiative, said more pensions risk going astray because data protection regulations make it harder for providers to share information and track missing scheme members.
That puts the onus on you to have a go. “It is easier than people think and you could get a windfall for free,” he said.
You can get free government-backed guidance to help find missing pensions by visiting Moneyhelper.org.uk, calling 0800 011 3797 or using its webchat, online form orwhatsapp services. Moneyhelper is run by the Money and
Pension Service and its pensions expert Martin Bell said to recover a lost workplace pension, start by contacting your former employer: “If you can’t find their details, contact the government’s Pensions Tracing Service or call Moneyhelper’s pensions helpline.”
Once you have tracked down your pots, check your statements or ask for an up-to-date valuation of how much you saved.
Bell said this could be a good opportunity to work out how much you need to live on comfortably in retirement, and whether you need to save more.
ALMOST one in five of us will lose track of at least one of our pension plans during our working life, according to research from Blacktower Financial Management.
To trace an old pension you need your previous employer’s name or pension plan name, the type of trade they were in, an address and when you were enrolled on the scheme.
By law, most pension plans need to send you annual updates. Keep these and update all your schemes if you move home.
Brewin Dolphin financial planner Lee Clark said keeping track of pensions may be easier if you consolidate them all into one pot, and you could save on charges as well.
However he warned: “This could prove financially detrimental if it means giving up valuable benefits and guarantees, such as an enhanced pension commencement lump sum, protected pension age, guaranteed annuity rate or built-in life insurance or critical illness cover.”