This article is for general guidance only and is not financial or professional advice. Any links are for your own information, and do not constitute any form of recommendation by Saga. You should not solely rely on this information to make any decisions, and consider seeking independent professional advice. All figures and information in this article are correct at the time of publishing, but laws, entitlements, tax treatments and allowances may change in the future.
It’s easy to forget about an old bank or building society account, investment plan, or pension. Since signing up for a particular product, life events might mean you’ve changed your name, moved location, or landed a new job. Or all three!
Alternatively, your product provider could have disappeared as part of a merger. In extreme circumstances, your financial adviser might have gone out of business along with any records of your finances.
From dormant savings accounts to long-forgotten retirement plans, this guide runs through the steps you can take to claim back lost assets. We also report on a nationwide campaign seeking to re-unite Brits with £3 billion in missing cash.
It’s difficult to quote an exact figure, but it’s not an exaggeration to say there are dozens of billions of pounds lurking unclaimed by millions of UK customers in lost or forgotten savings accounts, pension plans, and investments.
Gretel, the online dormant account tracing service that’s behind the ‘Billions 4 Millions’ campaign (see below), estimates the figure at an eyewatering £89 billion.
Checking if you’ve got unclaimed monies languishing in various accounts is free, can usually be done online, is relatively straightforward, and can potentially boost your financial wealth in the process.
From pensions to Premium Bonds, here are the main ways to unearth missing assets.
Before they classify an account as ‘lost’, product providers such as banks, building societies and investment firms, usually rely on two main indicators:
The way the scheme works means that 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 for community projects around the UK.
Even after the money has been transferred, however, owners are still able to reclaim what they would have been owed using the options we outline below.
In 2024, Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) research revealed that just over £31 billion was languishing in 3.3 million “lost” pension pots - a staggering sum of money.
In addition, PPI reported that pension policyholders in the age-range 55 to 75 were most vulnerable to missing pension pots each worth an average of £13,620.
Whether you’ve lost track of a former company scheme, or personal pension, when trying to locate a missing policy the first port of call should be to contact the provider direct.
For example, for a query concerning a former works pension, the sponsoring organisation’s HR function or the scheme’s trustee body should be able to help with your enquiry.
Where it proves difficult to contact a provider, a company might have ceased trading or been taken over by another, for example, or if a pensions business has changed names, there are other means at your disposal.
One of these is the online Pension Tracing Service (PTS) from the UK government. It’s free to use and searches a database of over 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes to find contact details which aid your search for a missing pension fund.
Whenever you try to track down a lost or forgotten policy, gathering as much information as possible before making an approach should help speed up the process. It will help to have these details to hand:
With the PTS, you can also request contact details via telephone or post if you prefer. See the website for more information.
My Lost Account is a free online service that helps you to track down lost bank and building society accounts, along with products from National Savings & Investments (NS&I). To locate missing Premium Bonds from NS&I, see the separate section below.
The My Lost Account service brings together three tracing schemes from UK Finance, the banks’ representative organisation, the Building Societies Association, and NS&I.
To get started, users need to complete an online form. The service sends your information to all the banks and building societies with whom you potentially have an account.
The more information you can provide about your lost account, the better chance there is of finding it. Relevant information that can help locate old bank accounts includes:
You’ll also need to supply your personal details, including date of birth, current contact information and address. Remember, you may have set up your account under a different name or while living at a previous address, so have these details to hand as well.
You can also contact a bank or building society directly if you think you have an account with them.
NS&I savers currently own Premium Bonds worth about £136 billion. Premium Bond holdings are grouped under one holder’s number. If you’ve mislaid your holder’s number, you can still recover it and locate your lost Premium Bonds by using the NS&I’s tracing service.
The service provides a form which you download and print, complete, and post back to the NS&I. To complete the form, you’ll need to provide certain details, including your name and address (including old addresses), an estimate of when you were issued your bonds, and how much they were worth when you last checked.
You can also use this service to find a deceased relative’s Premium Bonds. All you need is their name, address and relevant documents like their will and death certificate.
Even when they are lost, Premium Bonds are still valid if you’ve not cashed them in and they continue to be entered into monthly prize draws. So, after tracking down your lost bonds, make sure to check if you are owed any unclaimed prizes. To do this use the NS&I prize checker.
The online Unclaimed Assets Portal is a service provided by the Investment Association, the investment industry’s representative organisation, to help re-unite customers with their investment holdings.
This includes investment funds, stocks and shares ISAs, and exchange-traded funds. The service requires a one-off registration online and informs users when there is a match.
If you have bought shares directly in a company, rather than using one of the many DIY investing platforms, such as Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell, you’ll need to contact one of a handful of share registrars such as Computershare or Equiniti.
Where you’re unaware of which registrar looks after your shares, you will need to make enquiries across several providers.
Once you’ve located the correct registrar, be prepared to pay for certain services such as being supplied with a new share certificate if you’ve lost the old one.
Led by Duncan Stevens, the founder of dormant account tracing service Gretel, the Billions 4 Millions campaign, in partnership with the UK’s financial services sector, is on a quest to unearth £3 billion in lost cash in 2026 alone.
The campaign has received nationwide media attention. It brings together businesses from across the financial sector, including pensions, asset management, insurance and banking, and works by combining large-scale institutional data with specialist tracing expertise.
For firms, it also promotes good customer outcomes which are becoming increasingly important as cost-of-living pressures impact households. The campaign also chimes with Consumer Duty rules overseen by the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, drawn up to protect the interests of consumers when taking out financial products.
To use the free service, log on to the website, register and supply key information such as name, address and date of birth.
Duncan Stevens says: “By our 50s, 60s and 70s, many of us have changed jobs or moved home several times, two of the main reasons people lose touch with savings, pensions and investments. These age groups account for more than nine in ten of the assets we’ve help uncover recently.”
“Lost savings can matter enormously to families, particularly when someone is no longer able to manage their own financial affairs. Our largest identified case so far was worth more than £1.5 million, found after an attorney registered to search on their behalf.”
Stevens adds that, up until the end of May 2026, the campaign had re-united £2.1 billion with people who’d made enquiries.
If you’ve opened several bank accounts over the years, keeping up with your money can be tricky. Here are some useful tips to keep track of your bank accounts and ensure you have access to all your funds:
Get your money moving with our great rate.
In partnership with NatWest. Interest paid monthly. Available to UK residents only, designed for people over 50.
Here to support your savings goals
Discover savings accounts which pay tax-free interest in our ultimate guide to Cash ISAs
Learn how interest on savings works – from how it’s calculated to the power of compound interest and what AER means.
Learn how savings interest is taxed, what allowances apply, and ways to reduce your tax bill. A simple guide to tax on savings in the UK.
