AUSTRALIANS spend close to $6 million each week on scratch lotto tickets in the hope of picking up some extra cash. Yet billions of dollars of forgotten money is sitting in government coffers just waiting to be claimed.
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Our money watchdog ASIC says there is a pool of $1.2 billion in unclaimed bank accounts, life insurance, shares and other investments.
It’s hard to fathom how people can lose track of what are, in some cases, significant sums of money. But if you’ve ever moved without letting the bank know your new address chances are you could have some forgotten cash.
Money held in bank accounts becomes 'unclaimed' if the account hasn’t been used for seven years and contains a balance of $500 or more.
Since mid-2013, unclaimed money has been earning interest. So you could have a tidy nest egg you may be unaware of.
The lost money held by ASIC is always claimable by the rightful owner - there is no time limit on claims. So it’s worth taking a moment to check if you have any forgotten money. Just head to the government’s MoneySmart website and click on ‘Tools and resources’. If you draw a blank with the ASIC database, head to your state or territory revenue website.
Amazingly, the pool of lost money doesn’t stop there. More than six million super accounts totaling around $16 billion, is managed by the tax office.
Recently, I thought I had better take my own advice and do a search. To my surprise I found lost dividends from a share I own, the cheques had gone to an old address. I reclaimed over $1000 and of course updated the share registry.
Paul Clitheroe is a founding director of financial planning firm ipac.
