Pension Tracing FAQs: Everything You Need to Know
Pension Pie is a dedicated pension tracing service. We find lost and forgotten pensions for you – doing all the searching, letter-writing and chasing on your behalf – and bring everything together so you can clearly see what you have and where it is held. The average pension we find is worth around £16,500. You can get started at start.pensionpie.com, or if you are not sure whether you have lost pensions, try our quick lost pension quiz first.
This is a fair and important question. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation is required for firms that carry out regulated activities – such as giving financial advice, recommending products, or handling and investing your money. Pension Pie does none of these things. We are a tracing service only: we locate your pensions and tell you what and where they are. We never touch, hold, move or invest your money, and we never advise you on what to do with it. Because tracing is not a regulated activity, we are not required to be FCA authorised to provide it.
That said, we take our responsibilities seriously. We operate to high professional standards, follow data-protection law in how we handle your information, and where you need regulated advice we introduce you to FCA-authorised advisers who provide that advice under their own permissions. We are also working towards FCA authorisation as our service grows, so that we can do even more for our clients in future. You can read more about how our different service options work on our service choices page.
The fee is £249, which covers a full, detailed trace for up to five pensions. If you have more than five, additional searches can be added for £40 each once you have signed up. There are no subscriptions, no ongoing charges and no hidden costs – just one fixed fee for the work done. Payment options are available, including paying in instalments. Get started at start.pensionpie.com.
For most people, yes. The average pension we find is worth around £16,500 – far more than the cost of tracing. Beyond the money, you get convenience and certainty: we handle every step properly, so nothing is overlooked, and you avoid the 15 to 20 hours it typically takes to do it yourself. You also receive clear, confirmed results straight from the providers. And if we complete a full search and find nothing in your name, our guarantee means you get your fee back – so there is no risk in checking.
The free service is carried out by a specialist FCA-authorised adviser firm, and to qualify you need to be able to evidence existing pension savings – it is only available if you already have £75,000 or more in known pension savings (excluding the pensions you want traced). With Pension Pie’s paid service, there are no such conditions: we will search for any pension, of any value, for anyone, with no obligation to do anything afterwards. You can compare the options on our service choices page.
Yes – this is something we can help with. Losing someone is hard enough without the added worry of tracking down their financial affairs, and unclaimed or forgotten pensions are easily missed when settling an estate. If you are an executor, administrator or next of kin, we can carry out a trace to identify pension schemes held in the name of the person who has died, so that any benefits due can be properly accounted for and claimed by the estate or beneficiaries.
We handle these cases with care and sensitivity, and we will explain clearly what information we need – usually details of the person, their National Insurance number where available, and their employment history. If you are dealing with probate, having a complete picture of any pensions can be an important part of valuing the estate. Please get in touch and we will guide you through it gently.
The government’s Pension Tracing Service (on gov.uk) is genuinely free, but it is important to understand what it does. It gives you contact details for pension schemes – and then leaves you to do everything else yourself: working out which provider held each pension, contacting them, proving your identity, and chasing for responses. It does not contact anyone or trace anything on your behalf. For a single pension that may be manageable; for several, across employers who may have merged, renamed or closed, it becomes a long and frustrating job. Pension Pie does all of that work for you, using deep search tools and direct contact with providers, and follows it through to confirmed results. You can find the free government service at gov.uk if you prefer the do-it-yourself route.
You can, if you have the time and the patience. But think of it like any job you could technically do yourself – most people happily pay a professional to do it properly, save their time, and get a better result. Pension tracing is time-consuming and paperwork-heavy: finding old employers, matching them to providers, writing letters, chasing responses and sitting on hold can take 15 to 20 hours for four or five pensions, and many people give up halfway. We do this every day, with dedicated systems and trained staff, so it gets done properly and nothing valuable gets missed. Start your trace here.
We go well beyond the basic databases. Our team combines years of industry experience with AI-powered deep-search tools and access to records including SERPS, HMRC data and the Pension Protection Fund. We trace defunct employers and follow address and name changes, and we contact providers directly to confirm details and values. Crucially, we do not ignore smaller pensions the way some services do – if you think you paid into a pension at some point and can give us something to go on, we will make it our mission to find it.
It starts the moment you sign up. Once we have the relevant details, we contact providers on your behalf. Some respond quickly – in as little as seven days – while others take longer. The overall timeframe depends on the complexity of your case, how many schemes are involved, and how responsive the providers are. Throughout, you are kept updated through our secure app and by email, so you always know where things stand.
Getting started is simple. Complete the online application at start.pensionpie.com, pay the £249 fee through the secure payment facility, and then provide some basic information through the online fact-find. From there, our team takes over and does the work. If you would like to check whether you are likely to have lost pensions first, our lost pension quiz is a quick way to find out.
During the online fact-find we will ask for details such as your name, date of birth, National Insurance number, any address or name changes, and your employment history (the companies you worked for and roughly when). Anything you can remember about old pension providers or policy numbers helps us find and confirm your pensions more quickly – but do not worry if your records are incomplete, as filling in the gaps is exactly what we do.
Yes. We handle your information securely and in line with UK data-protection law. The whole process is run through our secure app, with no middlemen, and we only use your details for the purpose of tracing your pensions and keeping you informed. We will always be clear with you about what we need and why.
You receive clear, confirmed results – what was found, where it is held, and what it is worth – straight from the providers, with no jargon. From there, the choice is entirely yours. Many people are simply relieved to have everything in one place. If you decide you would like regulated advice on combining your pensions, planning your retirement, or reducing tax, we can introduce you to FCA-authorised advisers – but there is never any obligation to do so.
We are confident enough in what we do to back it with a guarantee. If our forensic team completes a full search and is unable to identify any pension scheme in your name, we will refund your fee in full. No argument, no quibble. (Applies to qualifying purchases – full terms are on our money-back guarantee page.)
No. Pension Pie provides pension tracing only – we find your pensions and tell you what you have. We do not give regulated financial advice and we do not recommend moving or changing your pensions. If, once you can see your full picture, you would like advice on what to do next, we can introduce you to FCA-authorised advisers who provide that advice under their own terms and charges. You can read about how this works on our service choices page.
