Why do insurance cos not publish online all pension plan wordings still live in 2017?

Terron

Instead they rely on very sparse information that has been passed from computer system to computer system through multiple company changes and reorganisations and call what they can see "the truth".

I suspect that many of the older policies were not computerised in the first place and theyhired temps to scan the documents at some stage, which work was probably not done to a high standard.Add in all the ways to lose information and it would not surprise me if they do not have copies of my policies.