Gretel and Aviva Team Up to Tackle the £89 Billion in Lost UK Accounts

A new fintech collaboration aimed at tackling the staggering £89 billion in lost and dormant financial accounts across the UK.

Gretel, the leading free online hub for reconnecting individuals with their lost funds, has joined forces with Aviva, one of the country’s largest insurers. This marks a significant step forward in the financial industry’s efforts to address the issue of unclaimed assets.

Gretel’s platform is a great example of an innovative fintech offering a quick and user-friendly solution for individuals to track down and reclaim lost or dormant accounts in less than three minutes. With over 27.2 million people in the UK affected, averaging more than £3,000 per account, the need for such a service has clearly never been more critical. Gretel has rapidly become the most widely utilized service for dormant accounts in the UK, demonstrating its effectiveness and consumer trust.

Duncan Stevens, CEO of Gretel, highlighted the synergy between the two companies, noting, "Aviva is on the front foot in proactively helping its customers reconnect with lost and dormant life insurance, investments, pensions, and annuities. Working with Gretel will enable Aviva to offer its customers a service that is free, simple, quick, and easy to use."

This sentiment was echoed by Caroline Dowson, Customer & Product Management Director, Wealth at Aviva, who stressed the importance of reconnecting customers with their lost policies and assets. “Our relationship with Gretel enhances our existing methods of reuniting customers with their assets and will bring with it the opportunity to reconnect with customers who now live outside the UK,” Dowson explained. She also noted that Gretel complements other services offered by Aviva, which help customers find and combine their lost pensions.

The collaboration comes at a time when the need for such services is increasingly evident. Gretel's research indicates that approximately 30% of UK adults believe they might have a pension they are unaware of or haven't considered. This issue extends to other financial instruments like bank accounts, savings, life insurance, investments, and Child Trust Funds.

The impact of these lost accounts is not trivial. According to Gretel, if consumers found their lost and forgotten money, one in six (15%) say they would use it for everyday living costs, and 13% would use it to pay off debts. Meanwhile, a significant 25% would consolidate them into other accounts, and 12% would transfer them to new accounts.

Gretel’s commitment to providing this service free of charge is rooted in the belief that consumers are entitled to receive all of the value of the money due to them and should not have to pay to reclaim their own funds. This principle has been a cornerstone of Gretel's popularity and success.

The collaboration between Gretel and Aviva represents a proactive approach to a widespread financial issue that affects millions of Britons. By combining Gretel’s innovative technology and extensive reach with Aviva’s robust customer network and industry experience, this collaboration is poised to make significant strides in reducing the volume of unclaimed financial assets and ultimately aiding consumers across the UK in reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.