Experian’s Unclaimed Assets Register (UAR) that includes pensions, shareholdings and insurance policies will shut down on 31st August 2022 after 20 years of operation.
UAR is set to close its doors after more than 20 years on 31st August 2022, new research from Gretel found what consumers think are the most important actions financial services companies should be doing now to reconnect them with the £50 billion of their money sat inactive in lost or dormant accounts including pensions, investments and life insurance policies.
While the UAR doesn’t cover all financial services products and comes with a fee (£25 for each search), it has been a key port of call for consumers tracking down dormant and lost accounts.
With just six weeks to go until the service is decommissioned it is unclear what the providers that had partnered with the service will do to help their customers going forward.
Gretel, the recently launched, free online hub which reunites consumers with lost and dormant accounts across the entire financial service industry, has found in a new study that half of adult Brits (53%) believe that financial services companies should be sharing records with a central organisation to better help them reconnect with dormant assets, rising to over three fifths (63%) of those aged over 55.
With nearly 20 million customer accounts with a combined value of over £50bn that have been lost or forgotten by their rightful owners in the UK alone, Gretel asked consumers what they thought were the most important things financial services companies should be doing to reconnect them with these dormant assets.
The study found that while the top suggestion was sharing records centrally, four in 10 Brits (40%) think financial firms should be more proactive in their efforts to remind customers to update their details to minimise the chances of them become disconnected.
In addition, a third (32%) of adults think financial services firms should increase the regularity they communicate with them on dormant assets and a quarter (25%) think financial service companies need to change how they communicate with customers for example, call or email customers rather than rely on written communications.
Duncan Stevens, chief executive of Gretel, said: “We’re at a point in time where consumers face a cost-of-living crisis and the number who are considered vulnerable, continues to rise.
“Coupled with this, one of the primary vehicles for them finding their lost assets – valued at £50bn – is set to close its doors in a matter of weeks with no alternative provision put in place seemingly from the providers previously using the service.
“We are working with the financial services industry to show how our exclusive technology can help solve a number of challenges ranging from lowering the cost of customer reconnection, to digitisation of vulnerable customer journeys, to rectifying legacy data quality issues and to restart financial conversations.”
