How do we find out if my useless husband has any pension savings?

[Largepiecesofcrookedwood]

Just that really...
DH is dyslexic and utterly hopeless with paperwork. He has spent his life relying on the good will of secretaries and for a period of time his somewhat dubiously motivated ex wife (you'd think he would have learnt after that episode )
While I refuse to pander to him do encourage him to make barbers appointments etc himself, I'm resigned to the fact that the bulk of the life admin falls to me and always will.
He's now almost 67 and only recently dropped into conversation that he doesn't think he has a pension
He has paid into several over the years, one when he was an apprentice in the sixties, probably a couple small ones over the years that he would simply have ticked a box to agree to, and more recently (about ten or so years ago) a personal pension set up by the dastardly ex (there's every chance that one is empty though, everything else was)
The problem is that he predictably can't remember which companies they were- at all (beyond "I think it was behind the Co-Op")
The .gov site seems to only work if you know the name of the provider so isn't much help to us. I'm guessing that any that he had would be linked to his NI number so could potentially be traced?
If anyone can offer any advice or tips I would be eternally grateful

Deferring seems like a good idea to me.

Goodness, it’s unusual for a thread to leave me speechless

67 and he doesn’t think he has a pension

And you’ve not discussed this before

I’m baffled that he was even employable tbh!

He's in good health at the moment so it made sense to defer. Ideally we would bank it all for a later date, but in the real world we probably wouldn't be so sensible. I also feel to a certain extent that this mess is his and he needs to do what he can to make it better. Continuing to work and earn for now goes some way towards this

caribbean he knows he's paid into pensions, he just can't remember which they were, when it was or how much he paid into them.
In his mind this equates to probably not having a pension, in the same way that dropping a £20 note means that you no longer have it.
Shockingly he's actually very good at his job which doesn't involve any paperwork

Depending on the pension scheme he is a member, he can preserve his pension until his 60th birthday and can then claim it in full. Some pension schemes are now 65 before you can aim it in full otherwise it will be paid reduced. As he's 67 which ever scheme he is in he can claim it now. The ex wouldn't have been able to get hold if it without him been aware even if she is the named beneficiary. He should be aware if any pension sharing order, if there is one and if he can reach the ex she would know who is paying it out.

He can also carryon working full time as my father did whilst claiming the state pension although the state pension is then taxed at his highest marginal rate.

you must have a narrow life Caribbean being so shocked and speechless

I suppose I must. 67 year old and no idea about his pensions. 27 / 37 year old - sure.
67?

Yup, I must ne narrow minded to be shocked.

If his ex wife set up a personal pension for him 10 years ago, then you met him when he was gone 57.
Probably later, as he then had to split up with his ex, get divorced then marry you. So assuming he was actually in his 60s when you met him, his pension shouldn’t be a significant part of your retirement planning anyway. So - leave him to it?

With regards to that “dastardly ex” (inverted commas because I’m picturing a woman who spent even more time tearing her hair out over his lack of care that you have) - if she set up a personal pension in his name, then she’s hasn’t emptied it, that’s impossible.

What she might have done, is applied during the divorce for a Pension Sharing Order (or similar, as the divorce was a few years ago) to have some or all of it transferred to her own pension. Which would only have been agreed if the court deemed it fair. So why not start by contacting the solicitor or court for a copy of the papers? Even if it wasn’t accessed then, in listing assets it’s possible that a full CETV with company and pension number was included - or at least, a reference to the company name.

Surely he can remember the names of the companies he's worked for? If he's still in full time employment he's clearly fully cognitive. Otherwise yes, a forensic accountant. I must say that the post doesn't really make sense. Surely this conversation has come up before? I mean if he's been aware enough to defer state pension, he's clearly on the ball in that respect. I'd be thinking that he's signed private pension over to ex and he's too scared to tell you so playing dumb.

If you write to HMRC they will be able to list all his past employers going back to at least the 1960s. You will need to include his name, address, date of birth and national insurance number. You Can then contact the companies in question to find out details of their pension schemes. However presumably he had to disclose them all as part of his divorce so he must have already done this once and his solicitor may have the details to hand along with the private pension info.

Use the Pension Tracing Service. He needs names of employers and dates and NI number, as previous poster says.