Reclaim lost assets: insurance, pensions, savings etc

wessie

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Jan 8, 2002
Messages
19,628
Reaction score
7,723
Location
Welshpool
I have put this here as it is relevant to personal insurance such as lost endowment policies as well as other forms of investment. Also, more people will see it as this section is not behind the paywall. Finally, as it is not in the pub, we will need to keep it free of partisan posting.

As ever, I was listening to the wireless and the topic of finding lost assets came up. The link is to the BBC Money Box broadcast and there are helpful links to organisations mentioned in the programme.

The assets might be your own stuff from a work pension you had 30 years ago. It might be a nagging feeling your late parent had a massive life insurance policy or it could be that one of your kids has lost details of the free money they were given as a kid in the form of a Child Trust Fund.

Unsurprisingly, Martin Lewis has a section on the topic on MSE

What was new to me was a tool to use as a last effort if you can't recall the name of the organisation to contact. This would be most useful if trying to search on behalf of a relative who needs assistance, has given you power of attorney or during probate. This was mentioned on the radio and is in the MSE article.
https://www.gretel.co.uk/ - free to use but it does mean giving them your name and date of birth to allow a soft search, so not everyone's cup of tea.

@Wapping - hopefully you concur that this is an appropriate section for this post.
 
For those unsure, I have just done it. Took seconds to complete, took name and DOB and current address and then after confirming previous addresses (which you do not have to put in but they show you) the search takes a matter of seconds. (I had zero come back so not retiring yet)

You can make it more accurate by also adding any missing previous addresses not listed and your NI number, it also allows you to add a company that you think may have information and they will contact on your behalf.

And thats it.

Very simple and very quick.
 
A friend of ours has had a load of sh#t recently from hmrc regarding payments made to her from lost investments,ppi and even a claim against overpayed PAYE etc after she retired.

After protracted investigations it turns out that someone had got hold of her details ie name, dob, address and NI number and several claims had been submitted on her behalf by 5 or 6 claims companies .

The claims totalling tens of thousands gave been paid out to said companies and the payees must have declared them to hmrc, she knew nothing of the clains and of course has recieved none of the money.

So she has lost the monies and now is fighting an hmrc tax bill.

Moral is be very careful about giving out your personal details
 
A friend of ours has had a load of sh#t recently from hmrc regarding payments made to her from lost investments,ppi and even a claim against overpayed PAYE etc after she retired.

After protracted investigations it turns out that someone had got hold of her details ie name, dob, address and NI number and several claims had been submitted on her behalf by 5 or 6 claims companies .

The claims totalling tens of thousands gave been paid out to said companies and the payees must have declared them to hmrc, she knew nothing of the clains and of course has recieved none of the money.

So she has lost the monies and now is fighting an hmrc tax bill.

Moral is be very careful about giving out your personal details
….and here endeth that salutary lesson
Very true
 
Moral is be very careful about giving out your personal details

as stated in the article and on Radio 4, using this service should be a last resort if you do not have any paperwork just a memory of an investment you feel it worthwhile to access

your name and date of birth is accessible to anyone as it is a public record so the initial screening could be done very easily by a bot. If this screening provides a hit then it would be sensible to contact the financial institution directly rather than using a third party to handle matters.
 
You were listening to the wireless! Was it the Home service or the Light programme? I do enjoy workers' playtime mesel'! :D

Useful info! Cheers!
 
Martin Lewis has been banging on about Child Trust Funds. Do you have kids or grandkids that might be missing out?

"If you were born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 (or have a child who was), you could be one of 670,000 missing out on as much as £2,200 in savings, lying dormant in a Child Trust Fund. It's quick and simple to check and claim the account if so – we've step-by-step help below."

 


Back
Top Bottom