UK Expats Recover £56m from 'Pensions Black Hole'

The deVere Group, one of the world's largest financial advisory firms, claims it has recovered £56m in pensions that had been previously lost or forgotten about by British expats in 2013.

The company, which has over 80,000 mainly expatriate clients worldwide, said in a statement that many who move abroad neglect or forget to claim their pensions.

"We're thrilled that in 2013 alone we managed to track down over £56m (€68m, $94m) worth of misplaced retirement savings for our clients," said Reece Fallaize, deVere's Global Technical Manager.

"The average lost or forgotten pension pot was worth £52,000. No-one wants to lose that amount of money, money that's been prudently put away to be able to enjoy a full, active retirement."

However, according to deVere, there could be a lot more in unclaimed pensions as 36% of the 1,100 expats polled admitted to having lost track of pension savings over time.

"This however, we believe, could only be the tip of the iceberg. Our findings, which are based solely on experiences with our clients, show that the true total of lost pensions for British citizens overseas could run into hundreds of millions of pounds," said Fallaize.

"With a more transient lifestyle, expatriates are typically more susceptible to losing track of pension funds because not only are they more likely to be 'job mobile', but because they are also likely to have worked in several different countries over their careers."

The deVere has a network of 70 offices across the world, more than 1,200 staff, over 80,000 clients and $10bn under advisement.