How to find lost and lonely money

Did you know that there are literally billions of dollars sitting idle in various government funds awaiting collection by their rightful owners? Yes you read it right billions and this money belongs to millions of Australians who have not come forward to claim what's rightfully theirs despite the best attempts by financial institutions and the government departments to locate them. You never know some of this money could be yours:

Lost super money - There's currently a whopping $6.9 billion of unclaimed superannuation money in Australia today and it belongs to over 2.7 million superannuation policy holders who have simply forgotten that they had the super. The reason for this is that they may have changed jobs regularly, had multiple part time jobs, moved a few times or have been in and out of the work force and just forgot about it. Statistically one in three working Australians has some form of lost superannuation (about $1,600 on average) so my advice is to contact your current superannuation fund and ask them to help you find any lost super. Many super funds have access to a search facility called SuperMatch which enables superannuation funds to request searches of the Lost Members Register on your behalf. Or you can visit the Australian Tax Offices web site www.ato.gov.au/super  call the ATO superannuation hotline on 13 10 20 or write to Superannuation Business Line Australian Taxation Office PO Box 277 WTC VIC 8005.

Forgotten bank accounts - There is currently $139m in cold hard cash (which is unclaimed money from bank, credit union and building society accounts that have not been used in 7 years) just sitting with Australian Securities and Investment Commission earning 0% interest. In other words, if you have not made any deposits or withdrawals in 7 years from your bank account and your balance was over $500 this money has been transferred from your institution to the Commonwealth Government. So if you think that some of that money could be yours simply take identification of the account eg the bank book or bank statement, together with proof of your identity to your financial institution and ask for arrangements to be made for a refund of your money or you can check out if you have an account on the ASIC register www.asic.gov.au  (click on the Unclaimed Money link) or call 1300 300 630

The long lost relative - There is currently over $50 million of unclaimed inheritance money currently with the various Public Trustee Offices around Australia. This money is there because the next of kin (or beneficiaries) named in Wills cannot be found. Once again some of this could be yours. The Public Trustees try to locate people for six years and after that they transfer the money into the State Treasury however the money is not lost forever because once a rightful owner steps forward the money is returned to them even if it is many years later. For more information on this contact the Public Trustee Office in Sydney (02) 9252 0523 www.pt.nsw.gov.au If you have family in other states contact the Public Trustee office there Adelaide (08) 8226 9200 www.publictrustee.sa.on.net  ; Brisbane (07) 3213 9288 www.pt.qld.gov.au ; Darwin (08) 8999 7271 www.ezgov.com.au   ; Hobart (03) 6233 7598 www.publictrustee.tas.gov.au  ; Melbourne (03) 9667 6444 www.statetrustees.com.au  ; Perth (08) 9222 6777 www.justice.wa.gov.au  ;