Finding unclaimed money could be a nice little gift for your net worth. ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) estimates they hold $1.1 billion worth of unclaimed money in the form of shares, dividends, bank accounts and life insurance. Likewise, the state governments hold a lot as well. Also the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) estimates there is $17.5 billion of unclaimed/lost super held by them and super funds. Luckily all these agencies make it really easy to search for unclaimed money that might be yours. If you act now you might get a nice present in time for Christmas. Maybe you can add it straight into your investments to increase your passive income!
ASIC unclaimed Money
On the ASIC unclaimed money page you can do a simple search for money that might belong to you. You can search by your name or an original transaction number. You will even be paid interest on unclaimed money. The ASIC search will find money sourced from back accounts and dividends, life insurance policies and shares/investments.
State government unclaimed money
Each state has its own way of handling unclaimed money but generally the Public Trustee will handle money coming from deceased estates and the Treasury or Revenue office will handle other money. Please see the table below for where to do a search for each state.
Money held by state governments can include:
- 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.
Unclaimed or lost super
The ATO and super funds hold plenty of unclaimed or lost super so it is likely some of it might be yours. It is super easy to check if you have a myGov account. Once you log in to your myGov account and head to the ATO section you should be able to click on your super information. This will give information on your current super fund as well as any others the ATO has information on. If there is unclaimed money you can simply request a rollover into your current super and the ATO will get it done. It’s that easy.
Bonus: Fair Work Commission unpaid wages
As a bonus, the Fair Work Commission might also be holding unpaid wages for you. This can happen if an employer was found to be underpaying and has been audited. But they are unable to contact the employee. In this case the Fair Work Commission will hold the unpaid wages until the employee makes a claim. You will need your name and an ABN or entity name of the employer if you want to do a search.
Unclaimed money summary
Overall, these government agencies have thankfully made it very easy to check for any money that might have been yours. There’s no excuse not to check all these avenues as it should take less than 30 mins. Plus you might get a nice surprise. It might also be worth doing a quick check for your family or notifying them about these services.
Have you managed to use these services to find any of your unclaimed money? How was the process? Was it a nice surprise? Let us know your experience in a comment.