Millions of Brits missing out on £90bn in pensions | Personal Finance | Finance
An eye-watering £90bn in dormant funds is lying unclaimed across the UK, spread over 30 million pensions, savings accounts, insurance policies, and investments. Gretel, a pioneering platform dedicated to helping Brits uncover their forgotten financial assets, has joined forces with leading pension providers such as Aviva to aid people in reclaiming what’s rightfully theirs.
Gretel’s research reveals that around 27.2 million UK residents have lost track of an account, with each mislaid asset averaging over £3,000 in value. The company points out that a staggering one third of UK adults have misplaced at least one financial product, be it a pension, bank account, savings account, life insurance policy, investment, or Child Trust Fund (CTF).
According to Gretel’s figures, there are nearly 2.8 million unclaimed pensions totalling about £64bn, with an average worth of £23,125 per pension. Duncan Stevens, the CEO of Gretel, said the firm had reuniting savers with their lost funds, noting that over £10m was reclaimed by its rightful owners in just over a week after featuring on ITV’s Britain’s Hidden Fortune this summer.
He said: “We are hoping to help savers track down their missing cash. That’s why we set up Gretel. It’s not just old savings accounts but with pensions auto enrolment, which means employers have to set up a new pension for all their employees, there are likely to be lost pots which go missing.”
He added: “While it may just be the tip of the iceberg when you consider the entire financial services landscape, there is still a staggering £2.2bn sat unclaimed in Child Trust Funds in the UK.”
Many CTFs were set up at birth and then forgotten. He said: “For many children, CTFs were set up at birth and long forgotten during the 18 years until they matured. When you add the potential for house moves and other life changes, it’s easy for people to lose touch with them. We want to get the money from ‘lost’ Child Trust Funds back to the younger generation where it could make a huge difference to their lives.”
Furthermore, an astounding £4.5bn remains unclaimed across 14 million ‘lost’ bank and building society accounts, equating to roughly £321 each.
Securities, including shares, bonds, and exchange-traded funds, amounting to about £2.5bn are forgotten in two million accounts; these accounts have an average value of £1,250 each. The issue extends to lost investments like endowment policies associated with interest-only mortgages, totalling £2.8bn, and averaging £2,800 per policy.
Life insurance is another area of concern with an unclaimed sum of £8.1bn spanning 3.5 million accounts, with an average of £2,380 each. This figure likely encompasses certain annuities with a guaranteed death benefit, which would remain active beyond the death of the original pension holder.
Additionally, NS&I has around £81m in misplaced funds, with approximately £35 per account remaining untracked. Lastly, a total of £5.7bn worth of Child Trust Funds belonging to 2.6 million children, averaging £2,175 each, is also absent from rightful owners.
Gretel’s complimentary tracing service can be accessed at www.gretel.co.uk. Alternatively, the government’s own Pension Tracing Service is also available for use.
