How to find forgotten pensions, savings and investments, and plan what to do next

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis recently highlighted an estimated £87bn of forgotten money across pensions, investments, savings, bank accounts and Premium Bonds for adults and children. His post and podcast discussion are a useful reminder that lost or overlooked assets are not a niche problem. Source: Martin Lewis on X and Martin Lewis on Facebook.

For many households, this is not just an interesting headline. A forgotten pension, old savings account, dormant investment or Premium Bond holding could change a retirement plan, a savings bridge, a property decision, or the point at which work becomes optional.

Finding old money is important. But it is only step one. The bigger question is this: if you find an old pension, savings pot or investment, what does it actually change?

Forgotten money usually does not disappear because people are careless. It happens because life changes. People move house, change jobs, switch email addresses, lose paperwork, open accounts for children, or leave small balances behind when they move on.

Pension providers merge. Employers close. Old building society passbooks sit in drawers. Premium Bonds bought years ago may still be valid. Child Trust Funds may have been opened when a child was young and then forgotten by the time they reach adulthood.

The practical issue is that your financial plan is only as good as the information inside it. If an asset is missing, your plan may be too cautious, too optimistic, or simply incomplete.

Pensions are one of the biggest parts of the forgotten-money story. The Pensions Policy Institute estimated in its 2024 Lost Pensions briefing that there were around 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK, containing £31.1bn of assets. Source: Pensions Policy Institute, Lost Pensions 2024.

This is not surprising. Many people now build up workplace pensions automatically through auto-enrolment. Over a working life, someone may collect several pension pots across different employers and providers.

A lost pension can matter because retirement planning depends on knowing what you actually have. Without a full picture, you may underestimate future income, overestimate how long your savings need to bridge, or miss a pension with valuable features.

Start by building a simple employment history. Write down every employer you have worked for, including approximate dates, old addresses, previous names, and any pension provider names you remember.

Then search for old pension statements, payslips showing pension deductions, provider emails, letters from former employers, HR documents, policy numbers and bank statements showing pension-related payments.

If you do not know who the provider was, the free GOV.UK Pension Tracing Service can help you find contact details for workplace or personal pension schemes. It is important to understand the limitation: the service can help you find contact details, but it cannot tell you whether you have a pension or what it is worth. Source: GOV.UK Pension Tracing Service.

MoneyHelper also sets out a practical process: list the places you have worked, look for the pension provider’s name, use the Pension Tracing Service, then contact the provider directly. Source: MoneyHelper, how to find old or lost pensions.

The UK Pensions Dashboard should make pension visibility much better over time. Pension providers and schemes in scope are required to connect to the dashboards digital architecture by 31 October 2026. Source: Pensions Dashboards Programme, connection deadline.

The Pensions Regulator says schemes are being asked to connect over time according to their size and type, with all in-scope schemes needing to be connected by 31 October 2026. It also states that schemes with 100 or more relevant members must connect. Source: The Pensions Regulator, dashboards connection guidance.

That is a major step forward, and it should help reduce the lost-pension problem. But it is not a reason to wait passively. The dashboard should help people see pension information. It will not automatically decide whether you should transfer, consolidate, draw down, buy an annuity, retire earlier, work longer, or change your wider financial plan.

We covered this in more detail in our article: Pensions Dashboard is getting closer: what to do now if you have lost pension pots.

Pensions may be the largest single part of the forgotten-money discussion, but they are not the only place to look. You may also want to check old savings accounts, current accounts, building society accounts, NS&I products, Premium Bonds, Child Trust Funds, old investments, shares, insurance policies or accounts opened for children.

For lost bank, building society and NS&I accounts, My Lost Account is a free service designed to help trace lost accounts and savings. Source: My Lost Account.

For NS&I products, including Premium Bonds, NS&I has its own guidance for people who have lost touch with their savings or investments. Source: NS&I, lost touch with NS&I.

For Child Trust Funds, GOV.UK provides a free tool that can ask HMRC to find the provider. It does not tell you how much money is in the Child Trust Fund. Source: GOV.UK, find a Child Trust Fund.

For some old investments, the Investment Association’s Unclaimed Assets Portal can check details against records from participating financial services companies. Source: Investment Association Unclaimed Assets Portal.

Finding forgotten money can feel exciting, but this is where it is worth slowing down.

Finding an old pension does not automatically mean you should transfer it. Finding an investment does not automatically mean you should sell it. Finding cash does not automatically mean you should spend it.

Some pensions may include guarantees, protected benefits, protected pension ages, exit penalties or other rules that are valuable or restrictive. Some investments may sit inside tax wrappers or have tax consequences if sold. Some decisions may need regulated financial advice.

The wrong reaction is to treat found money as a windfall in isolation. The better reaction is to add it to your overall financial picture and understand what it changes.

A forgotten pension, savings account or investment might change the shape of your plan. It might not. The important thing is to model the impact rather than guess.

For example, an old pension pot might help bridge the gap between stopping work and receiving State Pension. A forgotten savings account might strengthen your emergency fund. An old investment might reduce how much you need to draw from pension income in the early years of retirement.

The impact depends on the whole picture: income, spending, cash balances, property, pension access ages, State Pension age, tax, investment risk and the timing of future decisions.

Once you know what you have found, the next step is to put it into your plan. That means asking what happens if you leave it where it is, preserve it for later, use it to bridge a short-term gap, or change your retirement timing.

This is where Planiva can help. Planiva is not a tracing service and does not provide personal financial advice. But once you have found an old pension, savings pot or investment, Planiva can help you see how it fits into your retirement and cashflow planning.

You can bring pensions, savings, property, income, spending and future scenarios into one view. That makes it easier to understand whether the money you found is a useful bonus, a serious planning change, or something that needs further advice.

The easiest way to start is to work through the main asset types one by one. Keep a record of what you searched, who you contacted and what you found.

The £87bn forgotten-money figure is a wake-up call.

Some people will find nothing. Some may find a small account they had forgotten. Others may discover an old pension, savings pot or investment that materially changes their planning.

The important thing is not just to search. It is to understand what the result means.

Finding forgotten money tells you what you have. Planning shows you what it changes.

This article uses the following sources for tracing guidance, lost pension data and pensions dashboard timing.