How do I find an old policy or account I have forgotten?

Large sums sit unclaimed in old pensions, dormant accounts and lapsed policies, and the searches are free and straightforward. The obstacle is usually not knowing which service covers what.

Safety

Step by step

1. Gather the details before you start.Every address you have lived at with rough dates, previous names, employers and dates worked, National Insurance number, and any old paperwork. Searches match on these, and vague information returns nothing.
2. Search your own paperwork and email first.Old files, lofts, email archives searched for words like policy, pension, scheme, annual statement. It is the quickest route and it often produces a name to search on.
3. Use the Pension Tracing Service for workplace pensions.A free government service that finds contact details for a scheme from an employer's name. It gives you the administrator's details, not your balance — you then contact them yourself.
4. Check the Pension Tracing Service is the official one.It is on GOV.UK and free. Several commercial sites use similar names and charge a fee for the same search, which is a common and entirely avoidable expense.
5. Use the dormant account scheme for banks and building societies.The industry's free scheme searches participating banks, building societies and National Savings for accounts that have been inactive for years. One form covers many institutions.
6. Try the Unclaimed Assets Register for a wider search.It covers pensions, investments, life policies and share dividends across a wide range of providers. There may be a small charge for some searches, so check before proceeding.
7. Contact the ABI about life insurance.The Association of British Insurers runs a free tracing request that circulates to member companies. Useful when you know a policy existed but not with whom.
8. Check for Premium Bonds and National Savings.NS&I has a free tracing service and there are substantial unclaimed Premium Bond prizes. Their prize checker also works with a holder's number or NS&I number.
9. Check for lost shares.Demutualised building societies, privatised utilities and old employer share schemes. The registrars — Computershare, Equiniti, Link — have their own free search facilities.
10. Look at the Gazette for company changes.If a provider was taken over, merged or wound up, The Gazette and Companies House show what happened and who took the liabilities on. That gives you who to contact now.
11. Contact old employers directly.Their HR or pensions department often has records even for schemes that have moved administrator. Worth doing alongside the tracing service rather than instead of it.
12. Use your State Pension forecast as a checkpoint.The GOV.UK forecast shows your National Insurance record year by year, which jogs memories about periods of employment and can reveal gaps worth investigating.
13. Keep a record of what you have searched.Which service, when, and the response. Searches take weeks to come back and it is easy to duplicate or forget them.
14. Be patient and follow up.Responses take weeks and sometimes need chasing. Persistence is what recovers these, and providers are obliged to search properly when asked.
15. Do the same for a deceased relative's affairs.Executors can use all the same services. Unclaimed policies and accounts are a common finding when settling an estate.

Tips

• Write out every address with dates before you start. It is what the searches match on and it is the difference between a hit and nothing.
• The Pension Tracing Service is free and on GOV.UK. Commercial lookalikes charge for exactly the same search.
• Search your email archive for 'annual statement' and 'policy number'. It is faster than any tracing service and often gives you the provider's name.

Common mistakes

• Paying a tracing firm a percentage of what they find — Every official tracing service is free and the searches are straightforward. A percentage fee on a recovered pension can be a very large amount for work you could do yourself.
• Searching without your old addresses and employers — The services match on exactly those details. A search with vague information usually returns nothing and you conclude wrongly that there is nothing there.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask