Tracking down life insurance policies.

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Insurance policies like old bank accounts and Post office accounts become lost or dormant or simply forgotten like bank accounts.

Endowment policies attached to mortgages are sometimes abandoned when people move house these policies often become paid up. Earlier premiums remain invested and will produce payouts on maturity although smaller.
Many of these insurance and life polices remain unclaimed.

Although Life companies do often try to trace lost policyholders by contacting a policyholder's original bank, solicitor, GP or other parties involved in the transaction they can still find it difficult to trace the policy holder or beneficiary.

Previous employers, parents or a mortgage lender may also be contacted. When large sums are involved, insurers have used private detectives, specialist investigators and advertising. However, millions in matured funds still go unclaimed.

If you have lost track of your old pension or Insurance company then the The Association of British Insurers (ABI) can help you track down them down although it cannot help you find a policy that you may have lost.
http://www.abi.org.uk/

How to track your lost pension

Company pensions can also be forgotten and lost especially if you have changed jobs leaving behind a few years service on each occasion.

Your original employer may have merged, been taken over, gone bust but with the pension fund held by independent trustees.

Tracking down these abandoned pension funds schemes and the pension trustees responsible for looking after them can be difficult.

The Pension Schemes Registry can help. This is a database of all approved company pension schemes going back to 1975. It may also be able to help with schemes operated before that date.

It can put you in touch with the present pension trustees of your old scheme who will then help you claim any benefits.
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/

Personal pension plans were introduced in 1988 but are still forgotten and the benefits built up can go unclaimed on pension age.

If this does happen and you do not claim your pension the policy proceeds are transferred out of the pension provider's fund (unit-linked or with-profits) into a deposit account.

You can claim this at any time, you are entitled to the full value of the funds as well as any interest while the funds have been held on deposit.

The Pension Tracing Service

Why trace a pension scheme?

The Pension Tracing Service has access to a database of over 200,000 occupational and personal pension schemes and can be used, free of charge, to search for a scheme.

If you would like us to trace a pension scheme for you, phone 0845 6002 537 (Textphone 0845 3000 169) for an application form or complete our online form. Or write to us at:

Pension Tracing Service
The Pension Service
Tyneview Park
Whitley Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1BA

More information here:
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/pensiontracing.asp

A list of useful contacts to assist in helping to trace lost policies, pensions,bank accounts etc can be found on our Lost Asset resources page.

Check out the pages on tracing lost assets and the list of useful contacts.