Advice

Finding accounts and investments when you have power of attorney for a person with dementia

Question:

My mum has dementia and gave me power of attorney. She needs me to manage her accounts and investments but can’t recall their details. How can I find them?

Answer:

Start with what you have. Look carefully through whatever paperwork your mum has. You might need to be a bit of a detective to piece things together.

A bank or building society statement might show transfers to other accounts.

If your mum sent in tax returns or made a will, these could contain details about her investments.

Getting access to her online accounts may be more difficult. The bank should be able to help if you have a lasting power or attorney (LPA) in England and Wales or enduring power of attorney (EPA) in Northern Ireland.

Does your mum have a financial adviser? If so, ask them for more information.

Tracing accounts and investments

There are many ways to find different kinds of accounts and investments. You’ll need to show evidence of your LPA or EPA.

For bank and building society accounts:

• My Lost Account is a free service that searches for lost accounts and premium bonds. It’s funded by the financial services industry.
• Gretel is also industry funded and free.

To find pensions:

• The Pension Tracing Service can help – if you can, make a list of all the employers your mum worked for.
• MoneyHelper has more information about tracing pensions.

For shares, ask one of the main share registration companies:

• Computershare
• Equiniti
• MUFG

To find unit trusts:

• Try the Unclaimed Assets Portal.

If your mum might own property that you don’t have details about:

• For property in Wales or England, contact the Land Registry.
• In Northern Ireland, contact Land & Property Services.

Help with searches

Professional asset search companies can do these searches for you, but they will charge a fee. Be careful, as there are scams by people who pretend to offer this service.

Although you can do these searches yourself for free, some people feel it’s worth paying to get it done all in one go. And sometimes a professional company might be able to find out more.

Always check the fees first. We can’t recommend companies, but some examples are:

• Estatesearch
• Finders (England and Wales only)