pension lost between two providers

Mrs_Huggett

Hi all

Hopefully someone has had or heard of, this issue before and can help.

I had a pension policy with L&G and they have sold their "book" covering the pensions to ReAssure in 2019. I have contacted both companies who say they do not have any details of my policy amount. 

ReAssure say as it was terminated before it got passed to them and L&G say, that as the whole "book" was passed over, they only have records of policy numbers.

I am at a loss as what to do, to find out who has and what amount of money I am due.

Any advice is welcome

Many thanks

Irvine

Marcon

Has L&G confirmed that your policy was one passed over to ReAssure?

dunstonh

I had a pension policy with L&G and they have sold their "book" covering the pensions to ReAssure in 2019. I have contacted both companies who say they do not have any details of my policy amount. 

L&G didn't sell all of the pension book to ReAssure.     
L&G also use different addresses for different policies.  So, you need to make sure you are contacting the right L&G department.  

ReAssure say as it was terminated before it got passed to them and L&G say, that as the whole "book" was passed over, they only have records of policy numbers.

Did you transfer it to a different pension provider prior to that.   What is the date of the last L&G statement you received?

Mrs_Huggett

Marcon said:

Has L&G confirmed that your policy was one passed over to ReAssure?

Yes they did,

Mrs_Huggett

dunstonh said:

I had a pension policy with L&G and they have sold their "book" covering the pensions to ReAssure in 2019. I have contacted both companies who say they do not have any details of my policy amount. 

L&G didn't sell all of the pension book to ReAssure.     
L&G also use different addresses for different policies.  So, you need to make sure you are contacting the right L&G department.  

ReAssure say as it was terminated before it got passed to them and L&G say, that as the whole "book" was passed over, they only have records of policy numbers.

Did you transfer it to a different pension provider prior to that.   What is the date of the last L&G statement you received?

I only found out I had some extra pension when I looked at my pension forecast on the HMRC site, it was after I phoned them they told me it was with L&G, this was a pension I took out donkeys years ago when I was self employed, but I stopped paying into it because we couldn't afford it, I'd forgotten all about it to be honest.

dunstonh

I only found out I had some extra pension when I looked at my pension forecast on the HMRC site, it was after I phoned them they told me it was with L&G, this was a pension I took out donkeys years ago when I was self employed, but I stopped paying into it because we couldn't afford it, I'd forgotten all about it to be honest.

HMRC would only know the original provider. Not what you have done with it since.  Is it possible you transferred it into another plan at some point in the past?

Is it also possible that it never became activated?
HMRC would know the pension if you contracted out. However, if you were self-employed, then there wouldn't have been a penny sent in rebates from HMRC to L&G.    Lots of people had a contracted-out pension on paper that never had a penny paid into it.

In respect of the personal contributions, when was this?  Plans to around 1998 were very expensive compared to today.   Typically, the first 2-5 years of contributions would go in front-loaded charges and obtain no value.  So, if you stopped paying into it in the early years, it may been before it had a chance to obtain value.    

Marcon

Mrs_Huggett said:

Marcon said:

Has L&G confirmed that your policy was one passed over to ReAssure?

Yes they did,

So L&G confirm they passed it over, but ReAssure claim it was terminated before they received it. One or other party needs to clarify exactly what happened, so perhaps raising a formal complaint with both of them, asking them to confirm precisely what happened, would be no bad idea? If it's simply that the policy no longer had any value for the reasons given by dunstohn above, they should be able to confirm - which wouldn't be a welcome outcome but it would be a resolution.

Mrs_Huggett

Thank you for your replies everyone, I'll go back to the drawing board on this and have a ponder.

Firegirl

If there was no money in your account there is a 7 year obfuscation rule.  After 7 years if the holding is zero and there has been no contact with the customer the records will be deleted. I can’t find a link but this is based on what I do at work in a financial company (not pension). Possible reason for them both having no records.