Tracing the pension pots of a deceased person - is this even possible?

Watty1

Many years ago a boyfriend left me his pensions when he died (we lived together in my house his mother lived in his and he left that to her, everything else to me).  .   A letter came to the house about a pension he was paying into so I contacted them and it paid out and life moved on  At the time I was distraught and thought about very little other than making sure his insurance paid out for the mortgage so his mother was secure.  I used some of the money to make sure she was ok and carried on with my life. .

Today I was chatting with a friend about tracing her old pensions and reading on line I read about the many pension pots that are unclaimed and for the first time ever I wondered if my partner had any old pots that I had never found.   It was a sort of "ah ha" moment and wondered if I should look into it but I have no idea where to start.

Remembering him made me so sad I thought I would just stuff the feelings back down and forget it.  But,  having thought about it i began to wonder if it was possible to trace them so came on here to ask you knowledgeable crowd for your thoughts.

elsien

You can use the pension tracing service.
Bear in mind that any benefits from pensions tend to fall out outside of people’s estates, and it can be at the discretion of the pension provider as to what/who they pay out to if no beneficiary has been named on the specific policy.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/family-and-care/death-and-bereavement/what-to-do-about-someones-pension-when-theyve-died#:~:text=You%20need%20to%20contact%20the,how%20to%20claim%20that%20pension.&text=If%20you%20can't%20find,Tracing%20Service%20can%20help%20you.

Albermarle

Are you still at the same address?  as often ( normally?) an annual update of any pensions are sent by post. Unless maybe they still had his old address ( that his Mother lived at ).

Marcon

Watty1 said:

Many years ago a boyfriend left me his pensions when he died (we lived together in my house his mother lived in his and he left that to her, everything else to me).  .   A letter came to the house about a pension he was paying into so I contacted them and it paid out and life moved on  At the time I was distraught and thought about very little other than making sure his insurance paid out for the mortgage so his mother was secure.  I used some of the money to make sure she was ok and carried on with my life. .

Today I was chatting with a friend about tracing her old pensions and reading on line I read about the many pension pots that are unclaimed and for the first time ever I wondered if my partner had any old pots that I had never found.   It was a sort of "ah ha" moment and wondered if I should look into it but I have no idea where to start.

Remembering him made me so sad I thought I would just stuff the feelings back down and forget it.  But,  having thought about it i began to wonder if it was possible to trace them so came on here to ask you knowledgeable crowd for your thoughts.

The Pension Tracing Service isn't going to help unless you know the names of his former employer(s) AND the scheme(s) contact information held by the Tracing Service is up to date - and often it isn't, especially for schemes which were in existence 'many years ago'.

Try https://www.gretel.co.uk/

Watty1

Albermarle said:

Are you still at the same address?  as often ( normally?) an annual update of any pensions are sent by post. Unless maybe they still had his old address ( that his Mother lived at ).

No I  have moved many times, and his mother has passed away also.

Watty1

The gretel link was interesting - I might pass that on to the friend that sparked this thought!

For the pension tracing service i can maybe think of the names of some of his former employers, but, not the schemes and perhaps not the full details but he had an unusual set of jobs.

Perhaps this is just how money gets left unclaimed.