Unclaimed life policies: The Government started off by looking at savings accounts in banks, building societies and the Post Office Savings Bank, but there is a specific piece of legislation on the way to deal with life assurance policies.
It's difficult to quantify how much money is tied up in unclaimed life policies, but the last time the insurance industry attempted to give an estimate, it came up with £7.4 million (€9.4 million). That figure included fixed maturity policies, but did not include the unknown factor of open life policies.
There are two possible ways in which a person might lose out on the proceeds of a policy. It can happen that customers forget to notify the insurance firm when they move house or leave the country. In the case of policies with a fixed term and an element of value, the company tries to contact the policyholder when it matures so the person can complete the necessary paperwork and collect the money. If the company cannot find the person, they cannot pay out.
That money is not lost, however - it's just resting. The value of the policy will stay there indefinitely and the beneficiary can come forward at any point in future to claim the monies and interest payable.
If an individual has a policy that pays out on death and whoever is sorting out the estate is not aware of the existence of the policy, the policy could remain unclaimed. Insurance companies do not trawl the death notices looking for potential lost clients, and unless they are informed they will not know about the death.
It is always a good idea to keep life policy documents in a safe place with other important documents, such as the will, and to leave instructions about their existence and whereabouts.
But what if you have lost your policy documents and you want to claim the proceeds years later? The procedure is the same as when you are claiming on time. According to Ms Jennifer Hoban, life assurance manager of the Irish Insurance Federation, losing the original document is not a bar to receiving the policy proceeds.
"Normally when it is time to claim, you come forward, produce the original policy document and sign to confirm you are the owner of the policy. If you do not have the original document, it just means there is a lot more paperwork to be completed to verify everything," she said.
In the case of collecting the proceeds of a life policy after the death of the insured, the individual collecting the monies has to provide proof of his or her authority to do so. If the person insured made a will, the company will require to see probate of the will before paying out. In the absence of a will, the firm will ask to see the grant of letters of representation. Where there is a trust, the trustees must come forward. In all cases, a death certificate must be provided.
There has been far-reaching consolidation in the Irish insurance industry in the past three decades, with the result that many companies that were selling policies in the past do not exist any more. This does not mean those policies are worthless, however, because when a company is taken over, all its duties and obligations are taken on by the bigger fish.
If you come across an old policy document issued by a company that no longer exists, it is very easy to track down the company responsible for it today. The Irish Insurance Federation's information service has a full record of who was taken over by whom and will point you in the right direction. The telephone number for the service is 01-6761914.
Shareholdings: Perhaps in years to come you will come across an old, dog-eared share certificate down the back of the sofa from a company called Eircom and the name will ring a bell. You might be one of those people who rejected the Valentia offer and then never bothered to return the paperwork after the compulsory purchase.
But all will not be lost, because your money will be sitting in an account somewhere waiting to be claimed by you or your heirs.
There are two possible starting points when tracing obscure old shareholdings or lost share certificates: your stockbroker or the registrar of the company. Two registrars, Computer Share and IRG Capital, look after the share registers for most Irish-quoted companies. A handful of companies have internal registrars. If the company you hold a share certificate for has been taken over by another whose name you don't know or have forgotten, a quick call to either of the company registrars, a stockbroker or the Irish Stock Exchange should get you the up-to-date information you need.
In the case of lost share certificates, you need to go back to the broker. The stockbroker sends out an indemnity application form and the client fills it in, verifying that all the details are correct. The form is then sent back to the broker, who sends it on to the registrar with a fee of approximately £20. The form needs to be signed or stamped by an insurance company and there is also a nominal fee for that. The broker co-ordinates this on behalf of the client and when everything is in order, the registrar issues a new share certificate to the client.
Of course, if you hold your shares electronically in a Crest personal membership account, you do not run the risk of losing documentation.
People tend to be a little more careless when it comes to free shares, as the recent First Active windfall showed. An estimated 18,500 former members of First National Building Society missed out on claiming their free shares, worth an average of £1,350 each, even though they had three years to do so. The deadline for claiming the free shares was last month. And the moral of the story is: always open and read finance-related correspondence - and don't let such a windfall pass you by.
