Find your lost money
Did you know there is around $1.1 billion in lost shares, bank accounts and life insurance across Australia?
Basically, unclaimed money is money from lost bank accounts, shares, investments and life insurance policies that becomes lost when you move house and forget to update your details with a financial institution or company.
Unclaimed money goes to ASIC and is transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The good news is unclaimed money is available to be claimed, at any time, by the rightful owner and there is no time limit on claims.
Bank accounts become unclaimed after 7 years if the account is inactive (no deposits or withdrawals). Life insurance policies become unclaimed 7 years after the policy matures and is not claimed.
There are three key places you can look.
There’s more than $1 billion in unclaimed money held by ASIC. Think you may have unclaimed money? Here’s what to do:
State governments hold unclaimed money from deceased estates. You will need to contact the public trustee in the state where the money is held. Here are contacts for each state:
State governments hold unclaimed money from share dividends, salaries and wages, cheques, trust money, over-payments and proceeds of sale, to name a few.
Contact the following government agencies for unclaimed money such as dividends, salaries and wages, rent and rental bonds, cheques, trust money, over-payments, principal and interest, expenses, refunds, deposits, premiums, royalties, commissions, creditors, debentures, bonds, convertible notes and proceeds of sale.
Your state government agency may not hold all types of money listed above.