Good news for a change


Good news for a change – up to £19.4bn in unclaimed pensions!

A recent study by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) suggests that when we move home, only 4% of us are notifying the provider of our pensions about our change of address. This is despite these pensions possibly being worth considerable sums, often second in value only to the home.

The total number of pensions potentially left dormant and forgotten about could be as high as 1.6million, worth a staggering £19.4billion. That’s equivalent to £13,000 for every pension. With the average total pension (by value) held by individuals at retirement totalling approximately £30,000, clearly the extra funds could make a significant difference.

The research was used to produce guidance for insurance and pension providers and aims to help reconnect people with lost savings by improving reconnection communications.

The ABI says that typically people move house 8 times in their life but often forget to inform their pension provider. In 2017 it states that more than 375,000 attempts were made to contact customers, leading to £1 billion in assets being reunited with them.

Unfortunately, moving to a new house is such a busy and stressful time that we can very easily forget about contacting our pension and investment providers to redirect our post. Filed historic paperwork can also go astray as boxes are put into storage or into the loft and so it is then a very realistic prospect that we forget about the plans altogether. The vast increase in numbers of Workplace Pensions will only add to the confusion so it is imperative that we keep a record of what we all have and notify the relevant companies when we move. Your financial adviser will also have records of the plans, providing details were disclosed to them of course! There are also similar amounts in lost shares and savings’ accounts too!