Some things are so easily lost. Car keys, mobile phone, wallet, or you entire financial future.
At any given time a staggering five million people have lost track of their pension providers, like squirrels who bury acorns but forget where they put them. The result of a lost pension may lead to a diminished income at retirement age and eventually the Treasury benefitting from the unclaimed wealth.
The government, are keen for individuals to be as minimal a burden on the state in their dotage as possible have launched the Pension Tracing Service which will help to find missing pension pots.
Finding them, however, is not the end of the story.
Reunited with your long lost pension
Pension pots need to be monitored in order to get the most out of them and to ensure your retirement is a time in your life you can enjoy. Each pension pot that you have is subject to management charges and possible other annual costs. In addition to this, some of the pension pots that you have might not have been performing as well as others.
Not all pension funds accumulate wealth as efficiently as others and therefore it is important to closely scrutinise how well your money has actually been performing over the years. Once you have worked out which pension pots are performing and which are not, you need to explore your options.
Some pension plans might have benefits or guarantees attached to them, so make sure you know the long term consequences of any financial decision. In addition to this, pensions that have a clause enabling you to retire earlier, or pensions that give you the option to draw down higher than normal lump sums cash free are also valuable and potentially worth keeping.
THE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS AND INCOME FROM THEM MAY GO DOWN. YOU MAY NOT GET BACK THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT INVESTED