Unclaimed assets in United Kingdom

Overview

Unlike the United States or Canada, the UK has no one place to look. Dormant bank and building-society accounts are traced through My Lost Account. Lost pensions go through the government's Pension Tracing Service. Estates of people who died with no will and no known heirs appear on the Bona Vacantia unclaimed estates list. Each is free, each is separate, and none of them covers the others. After around 15 years with no customer contact, money in a lost account may transfer to Reclaim Fund Ltd under the Dormant Assets Scheme, but it remains the property of the account holder or their heirs in perpetuity.

How to search

1. 1

   Bank, building society and NS&I — My Lost Account

   My Lost Account is the free service run jointly by UK Finance, the Building Societies Association and NS&I. One form searches all three schemes at once, and more than 70 providers take part, including every major bank, all 42 UK building societies and NS&I products.

   • Set up a profile at mylostaccount.org.uk and complete a single application form.
   • Enter the name, date of birth, and current and previous addresses — address history is what most matches turn on.
   • Name the providers you think held the account. If unsure, the service suggests starting with the five largest firms.
   • Providers respond within 90 days. NS&I aims to reply within a month.

   What it does not cover: pensions, investment accounts, platform ISAs and life insurance are all outside My Lost Account. Those need the separate routes below.

2. 2

   Lost pensions — the Pension Tracing Service

   Run by the Department for Work and Pensions and free to use, this traces workplace and personal pensions when you know roughly who the employer or provider was but have lost the paperwork.

   • Search on gov.uk by the name of the employer or the pension provider.
   • The service returns current contact details for the scheme — it does not tell you whether you have a pension or how much is in it.
   • Contact the scheme directly with your National Insurance number, dates of employment and any previous names.

   Anyone who changed jobs more than twice before auto-enrolment is worth checking. A commercial "pension tracing" firm charging a fee is doing exactly this search.

3. 3

   Unclaimed estates — Bona Vacantia

   When someone in England or Wales dies without a valid will and with no known relatives, their estate passes to the Crown and is administered by the Bona Vacantia Division of the Government Legal Department. The list of unclaimed estates is published and updated regularly, and it is free to search and free to claim.

   • Search the unclaimed estates list on gov.uk by surname.
   • If you believe you are entitled, prepare a complete family tree with full names including maiden names, and dates of birth, marriage and death for everyone on it.
   • Send the tree with birth, marriage and death certificates and your own identity documents to the Bona Vacantia Division.

   There are two deadlines, not one: a claim made within 12 years of the estate administration being completed is paid with interest; after that, a claim can still be made up to 30 years from the date of death, but without interest. After 30 years the estate becomes the absolute property of the Crown.

   The Division handles estates over £500 in England and Wales only — not the Duchies of Cornwall or Lancaster, and not Scotland or Northern Ireland, which run their own processes.

4. 4

   Premium Bonds and NS&I — go direct

   Unclaimed Premium Bond prizes are a category of their own, and NS&I never removes a prize from the list — an unclaimed prize stays claimable indefinitely, however old.

   • Use the NS&I prize checker with the holder's number, or the NS&I app.
   • For lost bonds where the holder's number is unknown, trace through My Lost Account or contact NS&I directly.
   • For a deceased holder, NS&I has its own bereavement process.

Asset types held

Documents you'll typically need

• Photo ID — passport or driving licence
• Proof of address, and ideally your address history going back as far as you can reconstruct it
• Account details or approximate dates where you know them — not essential, but they speed a provider search considerably
• National Insurance number for pension enquiries
• For estates: a full family tree plus birth, marriage and death certificates proving the relationship, and your own identity documents
• If the holder has died: a death certificate, and grant of probate or letters of administration where the institution requires it