Most of them can be found. Between the government's Pension Tracing Service, old payslips and P60s, and writing to former employers and their schemes, very few pensions stay lost.
Free, run by the Department for Work and Pensions. It finds the scheme's current contact details from an employer name, which is the usual obstacle after a company has been bought, renamed or wound up.
Old payslips, P60s and annual benefit statements carry scheme names and membership numbers. A membership number turns a slow enquiry into a quick one.
Where the company still exists, its payroll or HR team can usually say which provider ran the scheme and when. Where it does not, the tracing service is the route.
Your National Insurance number, the employer's name, and roughly when you worked there. Previous names and addresses help, because schemes lose people most often after a house move or a change of name.
Ask the scheme for a current statement, the type of benefits, the charges, and whether any guarantees are attached. That last question is the one people skip, and it is the one that most often changes what you should do next.
No. It is a free government service. Firms that charge a fee to do the same search are charging you for something you can do yourself in a few minutes.
Yes, and it is one of the most common things we do at the health-check stage. We need your authority to approach the schemes, which is a form we send you.
The scheme usually still does, under a different administrator. Where a scheme was wound up, benefits were normally transferred to an insurer or to the Pension Protection Fund, and both can be traced.
Not automatically. Consolidation can cut charges and simplify things, but the guarantees on an older scheme are frequently worth more than the tidiness. Check before you move anything.
Tracing what you have and telling you what it is really worth is part of the free health check, and it is one of the things that most often turns up money people had written off.
Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.