Retirement savings mislaid by 7m people
Research by Aegon has revealed that 64% of people had multiple pensions and close to a quarter had mislaid pension savings.
The number of people within the group who had lost track of one or all of their pensions has increased slightly from 21% to 22% since the last survey of this kind and there was also a 2% increase in those who had multiple pensions.
The findings indicated that more than 7m people may have misplaced some of their retirement savings.
Headline findings were:
• 64% of people have multiple pension pots
• 22% of those with multiple pensions have lost track of one or all of their pensions
• 30% don’t know the total value of their pensions
• 27% would be interested in moving all their pensions to one provider if there were financial benefits
The findings highlighted the challenge of a broader trend towards a career involving an average of 11 jobs and the difficulty of keeping tabs on workplace savings.
However, the recent survey highlighted an improvement in pension awareness in the last two years, with nearly a 10% fall in the number of people not knowing the value of their pensions from 39% to 30%.
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “It’s very hard to plan for retirement without a full view of your savings and an understanding of what your state pension entitlement is likely to be.
“So it’s concerning that the number of people who have lost track of their pensions has increased slightly.
“Without the bigger picture people might be setting themselves up for a retirement fall without a clear idea of what their savings are worth.”