How To Find Your Unclaimed Money
In the midst of a global financial crisis, people are having to make greater efforts to make ends meet and support their families. People are working extra hours, reducing their household spending to improve their cashflow and selling things to reduce debt.
But I am sure that many people would be struggling a whole lot less if they found and retrieved their unclaimed money! In Australia alone, over $500 million dollars in unclaimed money is being held in trust by ASIC and other government bodies.
This article explains where unclaimed money comes from and tips of searching and retrieving money that you may own.
Where does unclaimed money come from?
Money can become unclaimed for many reasons. Here are a few examples:
- In Australia, if a bank account lies dormant for 6 years (no deposits or withdrawals), it will become unclaimed.
- If a person owns shares that pay dividends, and have not received or deposited their dividend cheque, the dividend amount will become unclaimed money.
- If a person has changed jobs frequently, they may have money in a number of superannuation (retirement) accounts. This may end up as lost super.
- A person may have been left money as part of an inheritance, but they were not contactable when the inheritance was disbursed
Why is There So Much Unclaimed Money?
The reason why there is so much is because most people do not know it exists. Many people do not believe that they could ever forget where they put their money. Even those that have heard of unclaimed money often don’t know how to locate and retrieve it - especially elderly people who are computer illiterate and have never used the Internet.
There are a few money-finding companies who search official unclaimed money databases and send unsolicited letters to people offering to help return their money in exchange for hefty commissions. Often these letters look like scams and people toss them in the garbage.
I discovered unclaimed money in 2001 after a family member received such a letter. Since then, I have recovered over $8000 for family and friends.
How can I search for unclaimed money?
Here are resources for Australians and International Readers:
Australia
Each of the following websites belongs to a different government agency (state and federal) and has a search facility.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission:
http://fido.asic.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf
NSW Office of State Revenue:
http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au/benefits/ucm/find/search/
Superseeker (Lost Superannuation)
http://www.ato.gov.au/content/33301.htm
State Revenue Office, Victoria
Department of Treasury, Western Australia
http://www.treasury.wa.gov.au/
Public Trustee NSW
http://www.pt.nsw.gov.au/Lost+Dollars/Default.aspx
South Australian Treasury and Finance
http://www.treasury.sa.gov.au/dtf/unclaimed_money.jsp
Public Trustee of Queensland
http://www.pt.qld.gov.au/services/unclaimed/index.asp
If you know of any other Australian sites, please send a comment.
International
For our non-Australian visitors – I care about your unclaimed money as well. Here are a few websites that should provide a starting point:
http://www.unclaimedassets.com/au.htm
Tips For Searching For Unclaimed Money
1. Look for common variations and spellings of your name
For example, a fellow named David McLachlan might search for the following:
David McLachlan
David MacLachlan
D MacLachlan
D Maclaughlin
D MacLoughlin
If you have a maiden name, or if one of your parents or ancestors changed their name, check for that as well.
2. Check Multiple Databases – Not Just Your Home State/Region
If you have lived in different areas, this is quite obvious, but this should also be done if you haven’t.
Let’s say you live in NSW, you may want to check Victoria and the other states as well. If you owned shares in a public company, their registered office or share registry may be located elsewhere and they will lodge money with the departments in that state.
How to Make Yourself Popular with Unclaimed Money
There’s no better way to make yourself popular than to make another person wealthier. Helping other people retrieve their unclaimed money could be considered better than charity, as you are merely reuniting a person with money they already earned and everyone’s dignity is maintained.
You can search for money belonging to of the following groups of people:
- Friends
- Family (close and distant)
- Work Colleagues
- Old school colleagues/teachers
- Current/old workplaces
- Your employer/school/university
Best of luck to you, and if you do recover some money, maybe you can buy me a beer!
New Appearance
You may have noticed that the appearance of the blog has changed – I am testing new themes for Here’s Trouble, as I was never fond of the default ‘Kubrick theme’ that comes with WordPress. This current one is a 3-column theme called ‘Revolution Code Blue’ by Brian Gardner.
What do you think ot this theme ? Please leave a comment here or on the contact page.
Women Falsely Claiming Paternity Benefits
Filed under: Australian Law Reform, Australian News, Uncategorized
The Child Support Assessment Act was recently amended to allow men who have been falsely paying child support payments to apply to recover their money. This has generated much controversy:
Paternity Tests Prove Hundreds of Men Duped
SMS after DNA test: You’re not the father
Australian men’s group seeks tests before child support
There is no doubt that the decision of a man and a women to have intercourse requires considerable understanding of the potential consequences.
The obligation of a father to financially support his child is clearly established in law. The retired tennis champion, Boris Becker, learnt this valuable lesson after being forced to pay millions of dollars for a child conceived during a brief liaison with a waitress in a restaurant broom closet in 1999.
Similarly, the responsibility of the woman to be truthful about her relationships is equally serious. A women knows exactly whom she has slept with and would certainly know if there is any doubt about paternity.
To extract money out of an innocent person by making false claims of paternity is a very serious matter which also has serious consequences on the other party, both psychological and financial
- It is a gross betrayal of trust
- It is traumatic for the man and the child. The man may have formed a close emotional bond to a child, only to find out that he is not the father
- A man may be deprived of his livelihood for almost two decades until the child reaches adulthood and becomes independent
Apparently, some feminist groups are up in arms stating that the only person that will suffer will be the child. To this, I say that the same argument could apply to a woman who obtains support money by robbing a bank or stealing from her workplace. Does this make her any less culpable for the crime? Of course not.
So not only do I fully support this reform - I feel it should be made even stronger in the following ways:
- In the case of false paternity, child support money must be repaid WITH INTEREST to compensate for the man’s lost opportunities
- Mandatory DNA testing of both parents and children must be performed in all custodial disputes
- Where there has been a proven element of deception or fraud on the part of the woman who has falsely claimed child support, she should be subject to all applicable criminal law concerning fraud and theft
- In the above case, the man should also be entitled to seek civil damages as considered appropriate for the case
What are your thoughts?
Kevin Rudd’s $6.2 Billion Auto Industry Package
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a $6.2 billion dollar package to support the Australian Car Industry. This was after foreign owned car manufacturers announced plans to shut down local production in the wake of the global financial crisis.
$500 million of this money will be set aside for a ‘Green’ car innovation fund, to produce environmentally friendly vehicles.
The intentions of this plan are certainly noble. Australia has a proud history of automotive production. The industry employs many people who hold a lot of valuable know-how.
These are the problems I see with the plan:
1. It’s a large amount of money and it may only temporarily defer the problem. Foreign manufacturers will milk the government funds, artificially boosting their profits, then shut down the factories when the money has been exhausted.
2. Australian automotive tariffs are set to fall from 10% to 5% making it harder for our local industry to remain viable in the presence of low cost German, Japanese and Korean imports. Would we be merely sustaining an uncompetitive local industry out of pride?
Here are some possible alternatives:
1. Assist Australian entrepreneurs in buying out the local arms of these manufacturing firms, to ensure that the industry is under Australian ownership and that profits remain in this country.
Perhaps a new Australian company can focus on producing low cost, energy efficient vehicles that would offer something unique and provide a competitive edge on the market.
2. Use the money to pay for redundancies for these workers and retraining to allow them to get job in other industries where their skills can be adapted, e.g. Agricultural technology, military vehicles
What are your thoughts? Your comments are most encouraged.
Female Egyptian Lawyer Advocates Sexual Harassment of Israeli Women
This has to be one of the most sickening things I have see for a while:
In a media interview, a female Egyptian Lawyer, Nagla Al-Imam, recommends that Arab Men Should Sexually Harass Israeli Women, as a tactic to achieve territorial gains in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nagla Al-Imam actually advises Arab men to tell Israeli Women that they should “leave the land so we won’t rape you”.
See the video here:
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1903.htm
This was provided courtesy of the Middle East Media Research Institute’s TV Monitoring project, MEMRI TV, who work tirelessly to translate Middle-Eastern newspapers, radio and television broadcasts into English, so that people in the West can see what people in that part of the world truly think, and not what the cowardly mainstream media choose to report.
I say to Nagla Al-Imam and other fanatics like her: human rights are UNIVERSAL and nobody, regardless of political belief, race or religion deserves to be subject to such humiliating and degrading treatment.
Your actions will only set back the cause of Women’s rights in the Arab-Islamic world and promote hostility towards Arabs in Western countries.
I would expect prompt condemnation of her statements from Human Rights Watch and Feminists groups around the world, but I am not holding my breath.
NSW State Government – Worse than a Desperate Crack Addict?
Filed under: NSW News, NSW Politics, Sydney News, Uncategorized
In a predictable move, the NSW state government, led by Nathan Rees, has cancelled several major rail infrastructure projects – namely, the North West Metro and the Richmond Line duplication, which has been ‘deferred‘.
These had been promised for many years and are needed to cope with the growing population in these areas. Housing has become highly unaffordable in inner-city Sydney, so people were encouraged to move to the outer areas in the expectation that the these Government transport projects, when completed, would be able to take them to their places of employment in the inner city.
The government of course states that these projects, which they previously claimed to be ‘fully funded’, have to be abandoned due to the budget ‘black hole’ created by the financial mismanagement of the past NSW Labor governments led by Morris Iemma and Bob Carr, and the global financial crisis which has led to reduced tax revenue.
Despite having cancelled these projects, the NSW government is desperate for cold hard cash and is prepared to sell all the public assets they can at any price. The latest assets up for sale are the electricity retailers, NSW Lotteries and Waste Services NSW. These are all profitable and income-generating.
One major reason cited by the state government for refusing to borrow money for infrastructure is that they want to maintain their ‘AAA’ credit rating. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the whole purpose of having credit ratings in the first place to allow reliable borrowers to obtain loans on good terms?
Now is the perfect time for the government to spend borrowed money. NSW is in recession and the economy needs to be stimulated – capital works projects have been historically effective in these situations.
Reviving the cancelled infrastructure projects will remove bottlenecks and lead to increased taxation revenue and economic growth. As we are are now in a higher inflation environment, the net present value of future loan payments will keep falling, reducing the future costs of servicing these loans.
Furthermore, keeping those public assets will ensure that their income is retained, and this income will of course reduce the burden of loan repayments.
Barack Obama wins US 2008 Presidential Election
Filed under: International News, International Politics
I’m sure it came as no surprise to many that the Democratic candidate Barack Obama, defeated his Republican opponent, John McCain in the US general elections last week.
As an outsider I will make the following comments:
It appears that McCain’s faux pas was having Sarah Palin as his running mate. In my opinion, the Republican’s decision to have a female vice president was a gimmick needed to counter the Democrat’s choice of a black president, i.e. promoting the emancipation of black people vs promoting the emancipation of women. Unfortunately, the Republicans did not appear to choose a suitably qualified person and Palin quickly became an object of ridicule in the media.
Considering the current financial crisis and ongoing international conflicts, the incumbent party would have needed to make a superhuman effort to retain power – that made things easier for the Democrats.
I do hope that Barack Obama will prove to be a good leader and not just the outcome of an ‘affirmative action’ mindset.
My concerns at the moment are that the new Government will go soft on fighting religious fundamentalism and preventing the nuclear arming of fanatical regimes like Iran. Russia and China may continue to gain power and influence, unhindered by US intervention.
