Thank you very much. I would never have got there on my own! Can D2 house a
wildcard, such as "*pens*" ?

"Aladin Akyurek" wrote:

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(D2,$A$2:$A$100)),--($B$2:$B$100=E2),$C$2:$C$100)

where D2 houses the word Pension and E2 the name Fred.

Note that this type of formulas does not admit whole column references
like A:A.

JEH wrote:
Can someone help me please? In the example below, what formula would I use
to sum data in column C that relates to Fred's combined pensions. Note the
string 'pension' or 'pensions' is in not particular position.

Col A Col B Col C
multi sector - Pensions Fred $100,000
Pension - Equity Fred $150,000
Pensions - Lifetime Fred $100,000
Equities Fred $90,000
Property Fred $45,000
Pension - Allocated Mary $50,000
multi sector - Pensions Mary $75,000
Pension - Equity Mary $100,000

I think I need to nest criterion bit despite trying examples given in
discussion posts on this site am having trouble getting anything to work.

If you can help, thanks in advance.
John.