Sleeping on the job: why your forgotten accounts need waking up
January. The month of fresh starts, Marie Kondo-ing your wardrobe, and cancelling gym memberships you signed up for three weeks ago.
But while you're busy decluttering your life and reviewing those direct debits you forgot existed, there's something else that might be gathering dust: your investments.
And unlike that old gym membership, a neglected pension or ISA could end up costing a lot more.
The silent wealth killer
According to a recent article in The Times, there are some pension funds – particularly older Defined Benefit (DB) schemes – that are missing out on billions of pounds by playing it safe with their investments. For example, the Universities Superannuation Scheme is the largest DB scheme in the UK, with £73 billion in assets, and has returned an average of 1.7 per cent a year over the past five years.
Moneyfacts looked at the best easy-access rates available to savers with less than £10,000 over the past five years and said that the average interest rate worked out at 3.23 per cent.
Just imagine: all that time, all those contributions, into something designed to grow your money for retirement, and you’d have got the same as sticking it in a decent notice account.
Performance can vary wildly
The uncomfortable truth about investing is that performance can vary wildly and there are some investment funds doing badly. We're not talking about a minor underperformance during a market wobble - we're talking about shocking losses in what's actually been a rising market.
For an idea of this, take a look at the best and worst-performing investment trusts of 2025 - shares in the best-performing investment trust rose 165% in 2025, while the worst performer lost 39%. That means that for some, their money is going backwards while everyone else's is going forwards.
This wild variation in performance is exactly why successful investing needs an actual strategy - one that's regularly reviewed and adjusted.
Yes, when markets get choppy, the message is often "keep calm and carry on". Don't panic-sell when share prices dip. Don't try to time the market. All true.
But that's about reacting to market volatility - it's not the same as ignoring your investments altogether.
A good investment strategy means:
Making sure you're not stuck in an underperformer while better options exist
Adjusting your risk level as you get closer to retirement (or further from it)
Taking advantage of new investment options that didn't exist when you first set things up
Actually knowing what you own and why
That's the difference between weathering market storms (good) and sleepwalking through decades of poor performance (bad). And that’s the work that we at Bow FS do day-in, day-out.
The forgotten pension problem
This is where dusting down those old policies can be a very good idea. And here we should really practice what we preach because our every own Sam, who started her first job at 17, dutifully enrolled in a pension, and then... forgot about it. It's still there, somewhere, possibly in an old SERPS scheme, potentially worth thousands.
The question is: has it been working hard for her all these years, or has it been having a nice long nap?
Sam's not alone. Most of us have at least one financial product we've lost track of - an old workplace pension, a savings account opened years ago, maybe even an investment ISA from when we were feeling optimistic about our financial future.
These forgotten accounts are still invested (or not invested) in whatever they were doing when you last looked. And if you haven't looked in five, ten, or twenty years, there's a very good chance they're not doing what you'd want them to be doing now.
Let’s talk about savings accounts
It's not just pensions either. With the Bank of England cutting the base rate from 4% to 3.75% in December, savers across the country are seeing their rates drop. Santander's 'Good for Life ISA' and 'Rate for Life' accounts dropped by 0.25% in mid-January. NatWest and RBS accounts followed suit on January 19.
But here's the thing: they're not all dropping by the same amount. Some banks are being more generous than others. Some are slashing rates dramatically. And they're certainly not making a song and dance about it when they do.
That savings account you opened three years ago because it had a great rate might now be paying you half what you could get elsewhere. But unless you're actively checking, you'd never know.
What should you do?
First, find everything. Dig out those old pension statements, log into accounts you haven't checked since before the pandemic, contact previous employers if you need to. The government's Pension Tracing Service can help with lost pensions.
Second, understand what you've got. What are these investments actually invested in? What are the charges? How have they performed? Not just this year, but over five or ten years.
Third - and this is where we come in - work out if they're still right for you. That cautious pension fund might have made sense when you were 25 and didn't understand risk. But now you're 45 with another 20 years until retirement? You might be missing out on growth you can actually afford to take.
The investment world has changed, too. We now have access to low-cost global trackers, thematic funds, Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) options, and strategies that simply didn't exist when many of these products were set up. You might find you can get better returns, lower fees, and more alignment with your values simply by consolidating into a modern, well-managed portfolio.
Don't rest on your laurels
We know that financial admin is about as exciting as watching paint dry. But a couple of hours spent reviewing your investments now could be worth tens of thousands of pounds in the long run.
We're not talking about becoming a day trader or obsessively checking markets every morning (please don't do that - it's bad for you). We're talking about a sensible annual review. Making sure your money is working as hard as you did to earn it.
If you're already working with us, this is built into what we do. We'll keep an eye on your investments, suggest changes when needed, and make sure you're not stuck in some underperforming relic from 2005.
And if you're not working with us yet? - well, maybe it's time to dust off those old pensions and give them a proper home.
Give us a call if you'd like to review what you've got - before it gathers any more dust.
Please note: The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you originally invested. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.
The information in this blog was correct as of 16 January 2026.