Just 7 per cent of UK pension holders who have moved abroad know where all their pension pots are, according to research by deVere Group.
The research of more than 750 people found that 74 per cent had never reviewed their UK pensions, while 68 per cent had worked for three or more employers before leaving the UK, potentially leaving them with multiple pension pots.
More than half, or 58 per cent, had also moved address without updating every pension provider, meaning pension statements and other correspondence could still be going to previous addresses.
Almost half or 48 per cent said they plan to start drawing their UK pensions within the next 10 years.
According to deVere Group, the findings highlighted the difficulty some people face in keeping track of pension pots after moving between employers and countries.
The firm says the issue could also affect people who remain in the UK, although the research itself only surveyed UK pension holders who had left the country.
deVere Group CEO Nigel Green says: “Money that sits untouched for years does not grow itself into a comfortable retirement, wherever the person who owns it happens to be living, and every year that passes without a check turns a manageable gap into a much bigger one.
“Anyone who has worked for three or more employers should assume there are pensions they are not thinking about right now. Each job can leave behind a separate pot, a separate provider and a login nobody has used in years. This is standard behaviour among UK pension holders wherever they are based, and it quietly erodes retirement plans on a national scale.
“Move house without updating every provider and the paperwork keeps going to an address that no longer exists. Annual statements, fund updates, even letters flagging a change in charges vanish into a postbox nobody checks anymore.
“People assume their pension is being managed. In reality, the provider doesn’t even know where they currently live, and that failure is just as common inside the UK as outside it. Nearly half of this group expect to start drawing on these pensions inside 10 years, yet the overwhelming majority have never sat down and reviewed what they actually hold.
“This is a countdown, not a comfortable planning window, and it applies to every UK pension holder heading towards retirement, not only the ones who happen to have moved abroad. A decade sounds like a long runway until you realise most people have never checked what is on it.
“Before anyone can make a decision about a pension, they need to know it exists, where it sits and what it is worth.
“Right now, the vast majority of people can’t answer any of those questions with confidence, and every one of them is one lost provider letter away from a pension that becomes very hard to trace. This is a live crisis running through every corner of the UK’s pension system, not a niche problem confined to expats.
“Every year of inaction makes the eventual task larger and the potential loss greater. Anyone who has ever paid into a UK pension, wherever they live now, should be asking themselves right now whether they could actually locate every pot they have built up, because the evidence says most people simply can’t.”