How to find lost pensions, savings or investments

Do you think you may have a ‘lost’ pension pot somewhere from years ago? You’re not alone. Calls to the government’s Pension Tracing Service have risen 58% over the last year, as more Brits try to track down their lost money.

The number of calls to the Pension Tracing Service from savers looking to find old or ‘lost’ pensions jumped to 68,709 in the 12 months to 30 September 2025, up from 43,614 in the same period the year before, according to a Freedom of Information request by accountancy and wealth management business Lubbock Fine.

Andrew Tricker, director of Lubbock Fine Wealth Management, said the increase indicates more people are looking to trace their pensions in order to maximise their retirement savings, in the face of higher living costs. More than 993,000 people have used the government’s free Pensions Tracing Service since May 2024, via a mixture of online searches and telephone calls.

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“People are increasingly taking the initiative to trace their pension pots, as evidenced by the sharp rise in calls to the Pension Tracing Service over the past year,” Tricker said.

"For someone who has had multiple jobs over the last decade the potential to lose pensions worth tens of thousands of pounds increases. Pension tracing and consolidation offers significant benefits, such as lower fees, simpler management and more efficient investment,” he added.

Millions of pension savers potentially missing out

Millions of pension savers are at risk of missing out on crucial retirement income by not tracking down lost pensions worth thousands of pounds, according to research.

Less than a third (30%) of UK adults have kept track of all their pension pots from previous jobs, a 2025 survey by Standard Life showed.

Meanwhile, three in five (60%) have never consolidated their pension savings, while two thirds (66%) have not tried to track down lost pots – despite the average pot being worth £9,470.

A quarter (24%) are unaware that changing employers can land you with multiple pension pots while one in four UK adults (26%) don’t know who their current pension provider is.

Mike Ambery, retirement and savings director at Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, said: “Millions of people risk losing out on valuable retirement savings simply because they’ve lost track of their pensions.

“With multiple job moves now the norm, it’s easy for pots to slip through the cracks.

“While tracking pots down may seem like a hard task, there are simple steps you can take to get your pots in order.

“Even if consolidation isn’t the right option for everyone, simply knowing where your pensions are and keeping a record can make a real difference.”

In this guide, we explain how to find lost pensions, as well as savings and investments.

Do I have a lost pension?

Considering the average person has 11 jobs in their lifetime, it’s little wonder we lose track of individual pots, particularly if the time spent working for the firm was fleeting.

Lisa Picardo, chief business officer UK at PensionBee, said: “It is unsurprisingly quite common to lose track of a pension, and our own research shows that nearly one in five UK adults believe they have lost a pension pot, equating to around 8.8 million people.

“If you are enrolled into a pension scheme at work and then leave that job, your pension does not move with you. A new pot is created at your next employer, and unless you take steps to consolidate or keep records, it is easy to forget where your savings are held.”

People also lose track of pensions because their provider changes its name, moves its communications online or sends letters to an old address.

Thousands of people are trying to track down old pensions. The government’s Pension Tracing Service received 273,709 calls between 1 January 2021 and 29 September 2025, according to a Freedom of Information request by wealth firm Hargreaves Lansdown.

The number would be even higher except for the fact the Pension Tracing Service was merged with another Department for Work and Pensions helpline between 25 May and 27 October 2024.

Research from the Pensions Policy Institute estimates there are 3.3 million lost pension pots. “This is all money that can make a significant improvement to people’s lifestyles in retirement and could be the difference between struggling to make ends meet and being able to enjoy your golden years,” said Helen Morrissey, retirement expert at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Since the advent of auto-enrolment which was rolled out between 2012 and 2018, anyone aged 22 and over earning £10,000 or more will be automatically added to the company pension scheme when joining the company.

This makes it easier to forget you’ve been building up retirement savings.

The good news is that your money remains invested and can continue to grow, depending on stock market conditions, even after you leave a company.

How do I find lost pensions?

You can track down your old pensions by contacting past employers to find out who the pension provider is and then calling or emailing the provider directly to enquire after your retirement savings.

You will usually need your National Insurance number and details of when you worked there to help them track you down.

Or, you can use the government’s free Pension Tracing Service.

For this you’ll need to input details of the employer who set up the pension. You’ll then be given the name, address and telephone number of the provider who operates their scheme so you can get in touch directly.

Alternatively, you can use a free tracing service such as Gretel which has around 3,500 companies spanning the pensions, investments and savings sectors. If your provider is one of those registered, by entering your name, address and date of birth you can find out in minutes if you have a lost pension and where it is.

Morrissey said: “Make a list of everywhere you have worked and check to see if you have pension paperwork for them. If you don’t, and you suspect you had a pension with them, then give the Pension Tracing Helpline a call.”

Once you’ve tracked down your pensions, you may wish to consolidate them into one place. This can save you time, admin and even cost.

Morrissey said: “It’s important to compare your old provider with what your new one can offer you. What are the fees like? What kind of investment choice is on offer and what support is available to you?

“But having one overarching view of what you have can transform your retirement planning as you will view one larger pension in a different way to several small ones which you may be tempted to cash in and spend.”

However, before you take the plunge, it’s really important to check that you won’t be incurring expensive exit fees by transferring out.

Another thing to be careful of is the potential to miss out on important benefits such as guaranteed annuity rates, which could be lost if the pension is transferred. It also rarely makes sense to transfer out of a final salary pension.

How to avoid forgetting about lost pensions

Here are some steps you can take to avoid pensions getting lost in the ether.

- Check your personal details such as home address and phone number are up to date across all your pension plans. This helps your existing and previous providers relay any important information to you.

- Ensure all your providers have your current email address so they can contact you if you leave a job.

It can also be worth consolidating your plans into one so you have less admin to handle, but this isn’t for everyone.

For example, you might want to keep hold of benefits that come with a pension such as life insurance or a dependant’s pension.

It is generally not worth transferring a final salary pension either, as you would be losing a guaranteed income.

Ambery, from Standard Life, said: “Bringing plans together won’t be right for everyone, so check that you won’t be missing out on any benefits or guarantees by doing so.

“If you’re unsure about your options, you may want to seek advice from a financial adviser. You can find an adviser in your local area at Unbiased.

“You can also access free impartial guidance from MoneyHelper.”

How to find lost ISAs and savings accounts

If you took out your ISA through a wealth platform such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell or Charles Stanley, they should be your first point of contact. They can update your contact details and reunite you with your savings.

Trade body the Investment Association also offers a free service via its Unclaimed Assets portal to track down stock-market related investments such as stocks and shares ISAs, investment funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Looking for cash savings accounts, opened through a bank, building society or NS&I?

You can use the My lost account service to search for accounts that have been marked as lost or dormant by your provider.

Set aside some time to complete the registration process.

Firstly, you need a valid email address. Then, to maximise your chance of finding an old savings account you’ll need to input as many of your previous addresses as you can remember and which institution the account was held with.

You’ll also be asked for sort codes, account numbers but it is not essential to provide these. Your request is then sent off to the bank or building society which contacts you directly once they’ve completed a search.

If your bank hasn’t marked the account as lost or dormant, however, you might not be successful.

Child Trust Funds are another type of savings account that commonly ends up lost. Child Trust Funds were set up for children born between 1 September 2002 and 1 March 2011.

More than a quarter of the accounts were opened by the government on behalf of parents.

According to HMRC, the value of unclaimed accounts for children who’ve now turned 18 but have never accessed their money is £1.4 billion.

Charlene Young, senior pensions and savings expert at wealth platform AJ Bell, said: “With over a quarter of these accounts set up by the government because parents failed to do so within the 12-month window it’s no surprise how much money sits unclaimed. Parents and children weren’t aware or won’t remember that an account was even set up, let alone where the money is now.”

You can search for a lost Child Trust Fund on the government’s website using your national insurance number and date of birth.

We explore lost Child Trust Funds in more detail in a separate piece.

How to find lost shares

If you’ve bought shares directly with a company, rather than going through a wealth platform, you’ll need to contact one of three share registrars – MUFG, Computer Share or Equiniti – to start your search.

If you don’t know which registrar is in charge of your shares, you’ll have to make enquiries with all three. You’ll need to tell them which company you think you have shares with as they can only carry out a search based on what you have told them.

Be ready to pay some fees here, however, depending on what changes they need to make to your records or if you can’t find your share certificate and need a new one.

Duncan Stevens, chief executive of free-account tracing service Gretel, said: “If you don’t have a share certificate you’ll need to sign an indemnity form and you may be charged an additional fee for an insurance indemnity.

“It’s an insurance policy that protects the organisation from fraud in the event that somebody finds that certificate and tries to make a claim against those shares for that money.”

You could also be charged for changing your address and asking for a dividend cheque to be reissued because it was posted to an old address. Fees can run from the tens of pounds into hundreds of pounds depending on the work that needs to be done.

How to find lost Premium Bonds

To find lost Premium Bonds, NS&I has its own tracing tool on its website. It will be able to find your bonds even if you have lost your bond document or you can’t find your holder’s number.

You can log into your NS&I account online to find your holder number which contains details of all your bonds. If you can’t remember your NS&I online account number, you can receive it by email after passing a security check.

Savers can also write to NS&I to locate lost bonds.

Unless you have cashed them in, your Premium Bonds will have continued to be entered into the monthly prize draw so don’t forget to check its prize checker tool to see if you’re owed any cash. There are millions of unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes out there, so it could be worth checking.

We explain how Premium Bonds work and how Premium Bonds prize winners are notified in separate articles.

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