Find lost assets - reclaim old pensions, savings, bank accounts and more...
Plus help to find lost investments and insurance policies
Billions of unclaimed financial assets lie in old UK bank accounts, pensions and investments – even though most are easy to reclaim. So whether the account's yours or belonged to a deceased relative, it's worth spending 10 minutes checking. You could be in for a windfall – one MSE user found an old pension worth almost £138,000. It's free and easy to check online, so don't be tricked into doing it over the phone – it could be a scam.
First, a quick overview of reclaiming forgotten cash
Billions of pounds lie unclaimed in old UK bank accounts, pensions, investments and insurance policies. If you've ever switched jobs, moved home or opened multiple accounts, some of it could be yours. Checking is quick and easy to do for free.
There are two main triggers for assets to be considered lost. Returned letters/statements or long periods of inactivity can mean your account is declared dormant.
Use free tracing tools. Start with the official My Lost Account service to find old bank, building society and Premium Bond accounts.
Find pensions and investments. Contact former employers or use the Government’s pension tracing service to track forgotten schemes.
Try a new single service to track missing assets. Fintech firm Gretel can run a search across all asset types for you. We've full pros and cons.
Never pay reclaim firms. It's free and easy to do it yourself.
Watch for scams. If anyone calls offering to find lost money for a fee, hang up – official services won’t contact you.
You can reclaim assets of deceased relatives. The process varies by case, and bigger reclaims can take longer to sort.
What is a lost asset?
It's thought there could be as much as £75 BILLION in total in lost bank and building society accounts, Premium Bonds, pensions, investments and insurance policies – collectively these are referred to as lost assets or lost accounts.
There are two main triggers for providers before they mark an account as ‘lost’. These are:
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Returned letters and statements. If the bank, building society or investment provider sends post, and it gets returned marked with an explanation that you don't live at that address any more, it'll mark this on your account try to contact you through any other details it has. If it gets no response, it might mark your account as lost.
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Inactivity. Even if mail is returned, if you're still using the account, it's likely to remain open. However, long periods of inactivity often cause accounts to be marked as lost.
How do I know if I've got a lost asset?
As it's lost, you might not even know you have one.
Accounts are declared lost after banks fail in attempts to track you down at your last known address. Investment providers will continue to administer your investment, but if you don't tell them when you move, you can't monitor how that investment's performing.
This means that unless you have an inkling that you had an account with a provider, it's unlikely you'll find out about any lost accounts. However, if there's any chance cash of yours is sitting unused in a bank's coffers, have a search as there's nothing to lose.
And bear in mind that if you do find a lost account, the interest rate is likely to be rubbish. So by ditching it and switching to a top savings account, your money will be doing much better.
What is a 'dormant' account?
The Government set up the Dormant Assets Scheme in 2011 to reunite people with lost cash that's been left untouched for 15 years or more. Under the scheme, if an asset's deemed to be dormant and can't be reunited with its owner, it can be transferred to the Reclaim Fund and used to fund environmental and community projects around the UK.
The scheme expanded in February 2022 and again August 2024 to include certain assets from the pensions, insurance, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors, as well as cash in banks and buildings societies.
Participation in the scheme is voluntary, so not all financial organisations are part of it – but all major high street banks and building societies have signed up. The first priority for any company taking part in the scheme is to try to reunite customers with their lost assets.
The money can only be transferred to the Reclaim Fund if it isn't possible to reunite lost assets with their owner. And even after the money has been transferred, owners are still able to reclaim at any time what they would've been owed using the routes below.
You don't need to pay to reclaim lost accounts...
There's absolutely no need to pay anyone to do this. A growing number of companies offer to track down your old assets for a fee. IGNORE THEM. You can usually easily do it yourself without forking out any cash. Be wary of giving out your details to anyone claiming to be able to help you trace lost accounts, as it could be a scam.
Depending on the type of product your assets are in – current accounts, savings, pensions, or various investments – a selection of organisations can help you to search for unclaimed accounts, often quickly and for free online.
'I found more than £137,000 in an old pension. I'm a big fan and want to say thanks!'
MoneySaver Richard followed Martin's tips after hearing about others who'd successfully found lost pensions.
After a few months, he managed to locate his old pension provider and a few calls later he'd found an old work pension which he'd stopped paying into during the 1990s. Richard wrote to us in April 2023:
I just wanted to thank Martin and the team for advice in locating lost pensions. I followed the advice and after a few months managed to locate my old pension provider, who were now Aviva.
After a few calls with them they found my old pension which I had stopped paying into during the 1990s.
When I called to check the current valuation, I still remember the lady at Aviva saying 'oh my God, do you know how much your pension is worth?' She was shocked that it had reached a value of £137,749.
I always watch and read what Martin says and without his advice on locating lost pensions, I would never have started looking for it.
Richard
A few years ago, Lance also used the info in this guide to see if he had any lost accounts, and found almost £40,000 in an old pension:
Used the information on your site to search for any old pensions I might have had years ago. Found I had a £39,000 pension with Scottish Widows. Thank you.
Lance (read Lance's full story)
Quick question
How to trace lost bank accounts, savings accounts and Premium Bonds
Billions of pounds are estimated to by lying unclaimed in old current and savings accounts and in lost Premium Bonds - thought to be over £5 billion. You can trace all three by filling in one form. All you need to do is:
Use 'My Lost Account' to start a free search
My Lost Account is a joint venture from UK Finance, the Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investments (NS&I).
To start reclaiming, use the link above to start a search and then fill in some personal details and any info you have about the account you're looking for. After that it's a waiting game – banks and building societies say they'll respond within three months of the claim, while NS&I aims to respond within a month.
If a bank/building society can't agree on the validity of your claim, you have the right to appeal internally through the bank and then, if still unsuccessful, to refer your complaint to the independent arbiter, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). See our Financial rights guide for other complaints the FOS can help with.
It's worth noting that if a bank or building society still thinks it has your current contact details, it may not have marked your account as lost, in which case you won't be able to reclaim the money using My Lost Account. Instead, contact the company directly, or try the catch-all service we mention further down in this guide.
Found lost Premium Bonds? Now check if you've won
Once you've tracked down your Premium Bonds, and got your holder's number or NS&I number, you can check if you're owed one (or more) of the unclaimed prizes on the NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker or on the NS&I prize checker app. There's more than £100 million in unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, ranging from £25 to £100,000.
If you find you do have an unclaimed prize, and you're registered for NS&I's online and phone service, you can phone 08085 007 007 to start your claim. For more info, including on what to do if you don't have a holder's number, see our Unclaimed Premium Bond prizes MSE News story.
Born between 2002 and 2011? Check for a lost Child Trust Fund
If you were (or you're are the parent/guardian of a child) born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, you could be one of 750,000 missing out on an average £2,200 lying dormant in a Child Trust Fund (CTF).
The CTF was the predecessor to the Junior ISA, a tax-free way to save for children with money locked away until they were 18, yet there was one big difference... the state automatically added at least £250 to open it.
If you know who the provider was, contact it. If not, HMRC has a handy tool you can use to find out the provider. Children 16 or older can do this themselves, or parents can do it for under 18s. See our guide on how to Reclaim your Child Trust Fund for full help.
How to find old pensions, investments and insurance policies
The amount of money hidden away in old investments and pensions is estimated to be almost £68 billion. If you think some of this could be yours, use the services below to track it down...
Pensions (employer and personal schemes, NOT state pension)
Always try to keep tabs on your pension schemes, as it may affect your ability to claim pension benefits when you retire if you lose contact.
As a first step, look through old paperwork or contact the HR department at old employers to see if they can help find details of previous workplace pension schemes you might have been part of.
If you think you might have lost track of a pension over the years, we've more information in our guide on how to find a lost pension.
Remember, if a close relative has died without taking their pension, you might be eligible for that pension fund's cash too. The amount will depend on the type of pension they had. See more on reclaiming deceased relatives assets.
Investment trusts, unit trusts and shares
There's around £2.9 BILLION sitting in 1 million lost investments and wealth management pots - that's an average account value of nearly £3,000.
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Unit trusts
For help in tracing unit trusts, you can use the Investment Association's Unclaimed Assets Portal. You can also contact the Investment Association on 020 7831 0898 or by emailing enquiries@theia.org. -
Investment trusts
The Association of Investment Companies advises people to fill in their details on My Lost Account to recover lost investment trust funds. -
Shares
If you think you have shares in a company, but have lost your share certificate, first find out who its registrar is and contact it directly. There are three main company registrars in the UK:
- MUFG Corporate Markets / Link Registrars Limited (previously Capita)
- Computershare
- Equiniti
Large corporations sometimes employ asset-tracing companies to trace shareholders they've lost contact with, or believe have passed away. These companies can charge huge fees to reunite you with your assets, but you can go direct to the company’s share registrar to get share certificates reissued, update contact details and transfer ownership. The registrar will charge a fee for some services, but typically these are much less than those charged by asset tracing companies.
So if you receive a letter from a tracing firm, confirm its fees before going ahead – as it’s almost always be better for you to go direct to the registrar.
To avoid losing track of your shares, register for dividends to be paid directly into your bank and choose to hold shares electronically with what's called a Corporate Sponsored Nominee. That way, even if you move home or lose a paper certificate, you’ll still receive your payments.
Insurance policies
If you're trying to trace an insurance policy in your name, it's best to contact the company first. If you can't contact the provider, it may be that it's changed its name – this list of insurers from the Association of British Insurers can help with name changes (it's titled pension providers, but many also provide insurance policies). If that hasn't helped, it's might be time to try a different service (see below).
No luck or can't find details?
You could try Gretel, a fintech firm set up in 2022. It works differently, but is free because the financial firms pay it (as they've a duty to try and find you, and this likely fulfils that need more cheaply than doing it themselves). Here's how it works:
Create a Gretel account using your email address and a password. You’ll then need to enter your name, date of birth, phone number and postcode. Gretel will send a verification email for you to activate your account.
Once activated, Gretel will run a 'soft search' on your credit report (this won't impact your credit score) to find any previous addresses, and ask you to confirm these (you can also add any that are missing)
It'll then run a search for missing bank accounts, investments, shares, pensions, life insurance and child trust funds – with initial results within a few minutes. You'll be able to see any search matches on your dashboard.
Gretel will continue to search every 14 days for new matches, so if a new firm joins it and there's a new hit, it'll let you know.
You can ‘improve’ your profile by adding your NI number and any previous names you went by.
You can also add any ‘third party’ names to your account to search for assets in another name as long as you have the legal authority to do this. You'll need to upload the relevant document before you can view details for a third party, such as a Power of Attorney or Grant of Probate.
Gretel says it uses bank level security to keep your data safe, and won't sell any of your data to third parties – it only uses it to try to reconnect you to any lost accounts.
We don't have much feedback on Gretel yet, so if you do decide to try it, please share your experience in the MSE Forum.
Can I reclaim assets of deceased relatives?
In short, yes. If you are the executor, administrator, or someone else with authority to act, you may be able to claim assets on behalf of someone who's died. You can use all the searches in this guide, often saying you're searching for someone other than you.
Though at some point in most process you'll be asked to prove you're legitimate to do so first by providing evidence such as a death certificate, Grant of Probate or letters of administration (or Certificate of Confirmation if in Scotland).
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The Pension Tracing Service and HMRC’s Child Trust Fund finder tool. As these tools don’t provide you with personal account information, just the contact details for schemes and banks/building societies, you’ll only be asked to prove you’ve the right to claim their assets when you reach out to the provider.
Both tools will ask you to confirm you have permission to search for another person’s details, and you’ll need the person’s NI number to search for a CTF). When you get in touch with the bank or provider, they’ll will typically ask for:
- A death certificate, if they’re not already away of the death
- A Grant of Probate, letters of administration or Grant of Confirmation (or a will if you’re waiting for one of these)
- Proof of your identity, such as a passport or driver’s licence
- Proof of your address, like a recent utility or council tax bill -
My Lost Account. As well as the personal information you need to fill out the form (including previous addresses of the person and date of birth), you’ll need to confirm what your relationship to them was, that you have the power to perform the search, and provide a date of death.
If the search is successful, you’ll have to give proof to the provider that you have the right to the person’s accounts. -
Gretel. You’ll have to open your own account first to verify your identity, then you’ll be able to add a third party. You should add their name (including any previous names they’ve had), historic address and their date of birth.
After Gretel has found the person, you’ll be asked to upload proof of your authority to act on their behalf – these include letters of administration or Grant of Probate – before they send any lost asset matches your way.
Important: Before using any of the search tools listed, make sure the deceased relative’s account is actually ‘lost’ first. If you know the bank or provider, it’s usually best to contact them in the first instance to track the account down.
For more help on organising the finances of a deceased loved one, see our Guide to probate.
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