Unclaimed money: the free ten-minute search almost nobody does

We've written before about tracking down lost superannuation. This is the other half of that job, and it's the half most people have never heard of: unclaimed money — dormant bank accounts, old life insurance policies, and share proceeds and dividends that were never banked, all sitting on government registers waiting for someone to put their hand up.

The pool is not small. ASIC has reminded Australians to check for lost money on the basis that around $2.7 billion sits unclaimed in lost shares, bank accounts and life insurance (Australian Securities and Investments Commission, https://www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/news-items/australians-reminded-to-check-for-lost-money-as-2-7-billion-sits-unclaimed/). I'll be honest with you all the same: most people who search find nothing. But it costs nothing, it takes about ten minutes, there's no deadline, and every so often somebody turns up a genuinely useful sum. This article is general information only, not personal advice.

Why are retirees most likely to have some?

This isn't about being disorganised. It's structural, and it stacks up with time.

Sixty years of accounts is the first reason: the longer the life, the more bank accounts, policies and share registries you've touched, and the more chances one got orphaned. The second is that you moved — registers lose people when they change address and nobody updates the record, and that is the single most common cause. The third is the one people forget entirely: demutualisation shares. When insurers, health funds and building societies converted from mutuals and listed in the 1990s and 2000s, members were issued shares, often without ever registering proper address details, so decades of dividends can be sitting unbanked against a name and an address from 1997.

Then there are old-style accounts — passbook accounts, accounts opened for one purpose and forgotten, a term deposit rolled over and lost track of. And finally there's money that belonged to a parent or a late spouse and was simply never found when the estate was wound up.

What are the three registers, and why isn't one search enough?

Here's the single most useful thing in this article. There is no one place to look. There are three, they hold different things, and they don't talk to each other.

The first is ASIC's unclaimed money register. It covers bank accounts, life insurance policies and company and share proceeds including unbanked dividends, once those have been transferred to ASIC. The trigger is time: a bank account becomes unclaimed money if it has been inactive — no deposits or withdrawals — for seven years, and a life insurance policy becomes unclaimed seven years after it matures without being claimed. Organisations are required by law to send that money to ASIC, which maintains the records and helps reunite it with the rightful owners (ASIC, https://www.asic.gov.au/unclaimed-money). You search it free through ASIC's MoneySmart at moneysmart.gov.au/find-unclaimed-money.

The second is ATO-held superannuation. Lost and unclaimed super is an entirely separate system, searched through myGov and ATO online services (Australian Taxation Office, https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/super-for-individuals-and-families/super/keeping-track-of-your-super/searching-for-lost-super) — our article on lost super held by the ATO covers that one, and consolidating what you find is covered in our article on super rollovers and consolidation.

The third is state and territory unclaimed money. Each state and territory runs its own register, holding money from different sources again. Check the register in every state you've lived in, not just the one you're in now.

The most common failure by a mile: someone searches for lost super, finds nothing, and concludes there's nothing to find. That result tells you precisely nothing about the other two registers.

How do you search properly?

A few minutes of technique makes a real difference. Try variations of your name — maiden names, middle names in and left out, initials only, common misspellings — because these registers hold your name exactly as some clerk recorded it decades ago, not as you'd write it today. Think about old addresses and old surnames, especially around the time you'd have held an account or been issued shares.

Search for deceased relatives if you're the executor or administrator of an estate. Collecting in the estate's assets is literally the job, and searching the registers is a step that gets skipped constantly. Our articles on deceased estate administration and the probate process cover the wider task, and our piece on the first weeks after a death covers the immediate practical steps. And write down what you searched and when, then put it in your records — our article on the emergency information folder is the natural home for it.

Is it free, and who would rather you didn't know?

Searching is free. Claiming is free. ASIC says so directly: finding unclaimed money is a free service provided by the Australian Government, and if a private money search company approaches you offering to find money for a fee, you can search for free on the MoneySmart website yourself (ASIC, https://www.asic.gov.au/unclaimed-money).

That covers the first group — "money finder" services, perfectly legal outfits that will locate money on your behalf and take a percentage, sometimes a substantial one, for a search you could have run yourself in ten minutes.

The second group is worse, and this is the part to hold onto. "You have unclaimed money waiting" is a well-established scam hook. Scamwatch describes exactly this pattern: unexpected contact saying you're entitled to money, compensation or an inheritance, where you're asked to pay a fee up front or hand over financial or identity details in order to receive it, often with fake documents to make it look real (Scamwatch, https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/unexpected-money-scams). So take this as the rule: government registers do not cold-call you, they do not email you demanding a fee, and they do not ask for your myGov password. If you get an unsolicited message about unclaimed money, don't follow the link — type the official address into your browser yourself and search from there. Our articles on scams targeting older Australians and on investment scams cover the wider patterns, and if you've already been caught, our piece on recovering after a scam sets out the steps.

What if you actually find something?

Two things follow. First, the good part: claim it. The rightful owner can claim at any time — there is no time limit — and interest is payable on unclaimed money, calculated from 1 July 2013, with no tax paid on the interest you earn (ASIC, https://www.asic.gov.au/unclaimed-money). So money sitting on the register since then has not simply been standing still.

Second, the part people forget: tell Centrelink. Money you recover is an asset, and it may affect your Age Pension — the means-tested government payment administered by Services Australia (Services Australia, https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/income-and-assets-tests-for-age-pension). There's a notification obligation with a timeframe attached, and "I found some old money" is not an exemption. Our articles on how lump sums are treated for the Age Pension, on your notification obligations, and on the 14-day rule for reporting changes cover what's required.

What do the worked examples show?

These two show the range of outcomes honestly. They are illustrative only, and not personal advice.

Consider Norma, 74, a full Age Pensioner who married in 1971 and has lived in three states. She searches the ATO for lost super, finds nothing, and would ordinarily stop there. Searching ASIC's register under her maiden name instead turns up a parcel of shares issued when her health fund demutualised in the late 1990s, with dividends unbanked against an address she left in 2003. Because there is no time limit on claiming and interest has accrued since 1 July 2013, the amount recovered is materially more than the dividends alone (ASIC, https://www.asic.gov.au/unclaimed-money). On these facts it is generally rational for someone in Norma's position to claim it and then promptly notify Services Australia, because as a full pensioner a sudden addition to her assessable assets is exactly the kind of change that must be reported within the required timeframe (Services Australia, https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/income-and-assets-tests-for-age-pension).

Now consider Tom, 69, recently appointed executor of his mother's estate. He assumes her affairs were straightforward and doesn't search anything. On these facts the risk isn't that he misses a windfall — it's that collecting in the estate's assets is his legal duty as executor, and a free ten-minute search across the ASIC register and the registers of each state his mother lived in is part of doing it properly. It is generally rational for someone in Tom's position to run those searches before distributing the estate, since a dormant account that surfaces after distribution is considerably harder to deal with than one found beforehand.

What are realistic expectations?

I'd rather set these honestly than have you feel let down. Most searches come back empty. Plenty of finds are twenty dollars from a bank account closed in 1994. The reason to do it isn't that you're probably owed something — it's that the search costs nothing, nobody else is going to run it for you, and the occasional result is genuinely material. A forgotten parcel of demutualisation shares with thirty years of dividends attached is not a small thing.

Ten minutes, three registers, no fee. Worth doing once, and worth doing again for anyone whose estate you're ever responsible for.

Sources

• ASIC MoneySmart — Find unclaimed money
• ASIC — Unclaimed money
• ASIC — Australians reminded to check for lost money as $2.7 billion sits unclaimed
• ATO — Searching for lost super
• Scamwatch — Unexpected money scams
• Services Australia — Income and assets tests for Age Pension