South Australians urged to claim $24m in missing cash

May 11, 2012 - PRLog -- SOUTH Australians are missing out on more than $24 million languishing in overlooked bank accounts, share dividends and matured life insurance policies.

Among the unclaimed SA money is $144,681 abandoned in a Bendigo and Adelaide Bank account and another $143,000 in company shares.

The average amount of unclaimed cash in SA is $498, Australian Securities and Investment Commission data shows, and as reported on http://www.lifeinsurancequotes-australia.com

ASIC senior executive for financial literacy Delia Rickard says it has been another record year for the national pool of unclaimed money, with funds rising by $28 million from last year’s kitty to $636 million.

“There is more money in the unclaimed money pool than ever before, so even if you’ve already searched, you should look again,” Ms Rickard said.

“It’s quick and easy to search for unclaimed money via ASIC’s MoneySmart website. You can search for yourself and for family and friends. Last year, Australians recovered $62 million.” To check if you have any unclaimed moneys, visit https://www.edge.asic.gov.au/unclaimed/simplequery.html

Ms Rickard said deceased estates where paperwork was out of date often led to money going missing. Her own stepmother had recently tracked down shares she had not known belonged to her father.

There is more than $300,000 waiting to be claimed in a deceased estate bank account in the ACT and another $785,865 of shares through a deceased estate in Perth.

Some people may be missing money from matured life insurance policies or share dividends because they failed to update address details.

Ms Rickard said some companies legitimately made a living by tracking unclaimed money then contacting recipients and charging a fee.

But this money could often be found via the ASIC website for free. “We recently were contacted by an elderly couple who rang to see if they (a company that had found money) were a fraud and we reunited them with several hundred thousand dollars for free,” Ms Rickard said.

Some unclaimed money is in bank accounts not used in more than seven years which banks or building societies then pass the money on to ASIC to hold.

“We do have some more unusual cases where we’ve found people with quite substantial amounts of money they were entitled to but they didn’t want it because of some family feud,” Ms Rickard said.

For quick and reliable life insurance quotes, visit http://www.lifeinsurancequotes-australia.com