Did M&S steal my pension?

I started at M&S straight out of uni. First proper job. Hated it tbh – the team was weird and retail is pretty repetitive… but that’s besides the point.

Wide eyed on my first day, I can remember my line-manager saying I’d get my pension info in the post, and everything would be automatic, and to be honest I just forgot about it. I vaguely recall getting a letter from a company called Legal and General with some info but didn’t keep it 🤷‍♂️… meh.

That was 8 years ago now, and I’d quite like to know where my money is. I worked there for 18 mo’s so I think there’s probably about £3k out there somewhere with my name on it? In an account? 😬

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how pensions go missing 🎩.
M&S haven’t screwed me, but they’re not losing sleep over my situation either. I’ve changed address a few times since then, and they have no obligation to hunt me down.

Until we built Penny, I had no idea how to get visibility of my M&S pension was. It was MIA 👀. And I didn’t know where to start… do I call Head Office?

☎️ “Hi Marks & Spencer, it’s Josh, I used to work in the Islington branch… do you know where my pension is?”

Beside houses, pensions are our biggest financial asset. It’s ridiculous that it’s so easy to lose them… or perhaps, it’s ridiculous that it’s so bloody hard to keep track of them.