Nearly 8 in 10 British expats have never reviewed their UK pensions, reveals a new survey from one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.
New research by the deVere Group has found that 77% of British expats have never reviewed their UK pensions, and almost half have no idea what those pensions are currently worth, leaving millions heading toward retirement without a clear picture of their own money.
The findings, drawn from a survey of Britons living abroad who have yet to take independent financial advice on their retirement savings, expose a scale of neglect that goes far beyond the odd forgotten pot.
Just 6% of those surveyed know where all of their UK workplace and private pensions are currently held.
Some 38% admitted they have lost track of several pots altogether, and a further 45% said they were simply unsure.
Some 62% of expats said they had changed address since leaving Britain without notifying all of their pension providers, and another 24% could not say whether they had. Once contact is lost, statements stop arriving, and a pot quietly slips out of view.
The numbers get more alarming further in.
Almost two-thirds, or 64%, plan to access their UK pensions within the next decade, including 21% within just two years.
Yet fewer than one in ten said they were confident every pension they have accumulated is included in their retirement plans. People are counting down to retirement on numbers they cannot verify.
The findings sit inside a much larger national problem.
The Pensions Policy Institute estimates there are now 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK, holding £31.1 bln in assets. The average lost pot holds £9,470, rising to £13,620 among savers aged 55 to 75.
“These numbers should alarm anyone approaching retirement,” cautioned deVere Group CEO Nigel Green.
“Nearly 8 in 10 expats haven’t looked at their UK pensions in years, and every year that passes without a review is a year those pots could be sitting in the wrong fund, charging the wrong fees, for a retirement that keeps getting closer and closer.”
Untracked
“What’s striking about this data is that it comes from people who haven’t yet sought professional advice on their pensions at all, which is why so many pots go untracked in the first place. Nobody’s watching them.”
Green added that a lost pension is not a dead pension. The money stays invested until it’s claimed.
“But dormant pots often sit in default funds chosen decades ago, inside contracts nobody has reviewed since, and every year that goes unchecked is perhaps a year of avoidable cost.”
The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that people hold an average of 11 jobs over a working life, and that as many as four in five savers will lose track of at least one pension along the way.
The gap between those figures and the survey’s findings is the real warning.
“If four in five UK-based savers already risk losing a pension, expats who have left the country, changed address and gone years without professional advice face a considerably steeper version of the same risk,” concluded the deVere CEO.
“Every additional year without a review widens that gap further, and for those already within a decade of retirement, there’s very little time left to close it.”
