Unclaimed Money In Insurance Polices

The hangover from holiday season means all of us are a bit hard up for cash.

Since I have been talking about unclaimed money recently, I thought we might as well search harder at our insurance companies for some unexepcted windfall.

Aviva has given 5,500 customers a festive bonus averaging £1,000 by reuniting people with money from insurance policies that have matured but not
been claimed.

For many this will be a surprise as its money from forgotten endowment policies taken out in the 1980s.

Source: Mirror

For those who stay in the UK, you can search at Aviva or call their number at 0800 158 2465 to find out.

Trust me, you can never be too busy for unclaimed money, unless of course, you already have a million bucks in the bank.

Unclaimed Money To Get You Started In 2010

One man from Muhlenberg County, Jay Durall, heard about the program through iSurf News and, after doing a random check on several of his friends and family members, decided to run his own name through.

As it turned out, his name was on the list of those owed money. Durall was owed over $400.00 by the Wal-Mart Corporation. According to Durall, the unclaimed funds came as quite a surprise.

"I worked at Wal-Mart during my college years, but I had no idea that when I left there was still money owed to me," Durall told iSurf Reporters.

Source: isurfhopkins

What a great way to start off the new year , by finding out if you are eligible for unclaimed money...

Besides the $400 story, there is also another one woman from Eastern Kentucky who had $100,000.00 in stocks that she was unaware of.

You can search the online database and see if you are owed money here. Who knows, you could be the next lucky chap!

How To Search For Unclaimed Money?

While I am struggling to cope with this recession and trying to build as much of an emergency fund, I am amazed that there are people who leave money unclaimed. Are they too rich or just forgetful?

There are people like Brent Minnick who made a business out of locating unclaimed money. This guy combs databases and once he identifies recoverable funds, he tracks down the owners with a proposition of 25% commission for doing the dirty work of claiming the money. A win-win solution but it can get pretty steep for a $1 million dollar windfall.

If you are hungering for a windfall and do not want to go through a middleman, here are some sources to start with:

Saving Bonds

About 41 million U.S. saving bonds (mostly Series E and H bonds dating as far back as 1941) have matured and no longer earn interest. So your grandfather long-term investment could have matured and is worth a fortune. A $25 bond sold in the 1940s could be worth 10 times its face value today.

Some people don't redeem old bonds because they lose them or forget they ever owned one. Others hold onto bonds as a keepsake. Unfortunately, by not redeeming a bond, you don't get the income or the return of principal.

To find out if you have a matured bond issued in 1974 or later, use the Treasury Hunt database. This also reveals if your missing bond is one of the 15,000 bonds that are returned annually to the Treasury as undeliverable.

For older bonds, you can start the redemption process by filling out a detailed claim for lost, stolen or destroyed U.S. Saving Bonds (Form 1048). It's available online at TreasuryDirect or at local financial institutions.

If your memory of a bond is vague, the Bureau of Public Debt will try to trace it for you. Write to the bureau at Box 7012, Parkersburg, W.Va., 26106-7012. Filling in as much information, like the denomination, date of issue, name and address of the owner will strengthen your case.

Federal Funds

The Treasury Department also keeps a list of unclaimed money held by federal agencies. The largest pot of money, as at end September, belonged to the judiciary, with $168 million in unclaimed cash. Much of that is restitution paid by offenders to victims who can't be located.

It also includes dividend income belonging to bankruptcy creditors that can't be located. Usually, the court holds the money for five years and then turns it over to the judiciary's unclaimed fund. If you are owed money, you can make a claim. You must go back to the original court and obtain a court order.

Tax Refunds

You have three years to claim your tax refund before the money goes back into the Treasury's coffers. So if you never received your 2005 refund because you didn't file a tax return for that year, you have until April 15 this year to do so.

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't have figures yet on the amount of unclaimed refunds for 2005. But if past years are any indication, about 1 million taxpayers have left $1 billion to $2 billion on the table.

Obtain back tax forms and publications at IRS or call them at 800-829-3676.

There are other sources of unclaimed money like bank accounts, escrow accounts, utility or apartment deposits, final paychecks of short-term jobs, property settlements in divorces, safe deposit box contents, insurance policies and checks that have never been cashed.

So far, I have been searching for unclaimed money, to no avail. I guess my windfall comes from rifling through closets and old purses to find a few pennies. Maybe, you will have better luck than me.