Is part of this $1.2 billion yours?

$1.2 billion sitting in forgotten shares, insurance policies and bank accounts

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published April 6, 2016 4:52 pm AEST

Australians have more than $1.2 billion of unclaimed money from dormant bank accounts, life insurance, shares and other investments just waiting to be claimed.

Last year, more than 25,000 people claimed over $158 million, but more is being added to the total every year.

Unclaimed money is transferred to the Commonwealth after it's been unclaimed for 7 years. The financial regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) manages that money, it's always claimable by the rightful owner, even after transferal to ASIC, and there's no time limit on claims, ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell says.

Even if you don't think you have any missing money, it might be worthwhile doing a search on the government's Money Smart website. It's free, quick and easy, says Mr Kell.

According to ASIC, the largest portion of missing money is from forgotten bank accounts, with $483 million lost, while there's another $299 million sitting in shares people have lost.

Reasons for the money going missing include:

You may have moved house without leaving a forwarding address (who does that these days?)
Haven't made a transaction on an old cheque or savings account in many years
Stopped making payments on a life insurance policy
Dividend or interest cheques are no longer being received. Many companies no longer pay dividends via cheque.
Or, you were an executor of a deceased estate.

Once you've found any missing money, you need to contact the relevant bank or other financial institution where the money is held if it listed as banking or life insurance. The institution will forward a claim to ASIC, and ASIC aims to have the claimed turned around within 28 days.

$16 billion in lost super

While you are at it, you may as well search to see if you have any lost superannuation by using the Australian Tax Office website. According to the ATO, there is more than $16 billion in lost superannuation held in more than 6 million accounts at the end of December 2015.

Foolish takeaway

For 5 minutes of your time, you could discover you are owed hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Now that's a nice way to make your retirement even better!

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