Pension Savings and Dementia, How Families Can Find Forgotten Entitlements Before It Is Too Late

When a loved one develops dementia, the question of their pension savings becomes urgent, and the window to find them narrows with every passing month. Across the UK alone, over 900,000 people live with dementia or Alzheimer's disease (Source: Alzheimer's Society, 2024). Many of these individuals worked for decades across multiple employers and have pension savings dementia has erased from their memory.

## Why Pension Savings Get Lost When Dementia Takes Hold

The average person who worked for 40 years may have pension entitlements with four or five different providers. When dementia takes hold, the ability to recall employer names, dates of employment, and pension provider details progressively declines. Pension statements go to old addresses. Providers change names through mergers. Employers close or are acquired.

Without someone actively searching, these pension savings dementia families desperately need can remain hidden indefinitely. The Pensions Policy Institute estimates the average lost UK pension pot is worth $12,000, and for someone with multiple employers over a long career, the total could be $25,000 or more.

## The Narrow Window, Why Acting While LPA Is in Place Matters

A registered Lasting Power of Attorney for property and financial affairs gives a named person the legal authority to manage someone's finances, including instructing a research and administrative assistance service. This is the key that unlocks the search.

Acting while LPA is registered is critical. If the person's capacity deteriorates to the point where LPA was never registered, the family must apply for a Court of Protection deputyship order, a process that takes 4-6 months and carries court application and ongoing supervision fees in pounds sterling. Every month of delay means more employment history is forgotten and more opportunities to gather information from the person are lost.

## What Families Can Do, Practical Steps

If you hold LPA for property and financial affairs, you can instruct PensionHunter to search for all pension entitlements across every country your loved one worked in. You need a certified copy of the registered LPA, as much employment history as you can reconstruct, and the person's full name and date of birth.

Look through old filing cabinets, drawers and documents for payslips, P60s, pension statements, or employment contracts. Even partial information, a company name, an approximate date, gives us something to work with. While your loved one can still recall fragments of their working life, ask them and note everything down.

## The Overseas Employment Problem

Many elderly people worked abroad earlier in their careers, particularly in former Commonwealth countries, the Middle East, and Europe. A pension from three years working in Australia in the 1970s or five years in the UAE in the 1980s can be worth significant amounts today. These overseas pensions are almost never found without specialist tracing.

PensionHunter searches across 41 countries, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, UAE, Vietnam, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Liechtenstein, Bulgaria, Iceland, Latvia, Romania, Austria, Portugal, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Slovenia and United States.

## How PensionHunter Helps Families Find Pension Savings

Dementia- and LPA-authorised pension research through PensionHunter is currently paused pending legal review. GOV.UK guidance on Lasting Power of Attorney and Court of Protection deputyship remains the primary route.

PensionHunter charges fixed fees only, Country Pension Identification Report $99, Enhanced $499, Global Pension Identification Report ($799). There are no success fees, no commission, and no percentage-based charges. Full refund if we find nothing material.

Register free today, or email hello@pensionhunter.ai to discuss your situation.

*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. PensionHunter is a research and administrative assistance service and is not regulated by the FCA or any equivalent financial regulator.*

At PensionHunter, building the World's Trusted Pension Identification Platform, we help people across 41 countries find pension records they had forgotten about.