The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched a new campaign to help re-unite Australians with their lost money, after the total amount of unclaimed cash had risen to a record $667 million, an increase of more than $40 million from 2011.

 

Last year Australians recovered $56 million. This year 33,022 parcels of money have been added to the database and are awaiting collection. 

 

There are parcels of unclaimed money waiting to be recovered in all regions of Australia including $992,750 from a dormant bank account in Carlisle, WA, $195,268 from a deregistered company in Gilston, QLD and $286,165 from a matured life insurance policy in Camberwell, VIC.

 

ASIC Commissioner, Peter Kell says, “You might not know it yet, but you could have thousands of dollars sitting in an old bank account, shares, or a life insurance policy.”

 

New South Wales has the most unclaimed money, followed by Victoria and overseas accounts. Aside from overseas records, WA has the highest average amount of unclaimed money. The state-by-state breakdown is as follows:

State

Number of records

Amount

% change from 2011

Average amount

NSW

549,242

$271,235,859

Up 12%

$591

VIC

196,879

$142,527,547

Up 6%

$724

QLD

166,274

$75,986,934

Up 7%

$654

WA

67,556

$53,411,935

Up 8%

$791

SA

43,740

$24,350,907

0%

$557

ACT

15,887

$10,935,940

Down 9%

$688

NT

13,670

$6,578,211

Up 2%

$670

TAS

13,670

$6,404,681

Up12%

$469

Overseas

85,191

$85,900,934

Down 5%

$1008

Total

1,008,253

$677,332,953

6%

$671

 

 

To find out if you have any unclaimed money waiting for you, clink on the link here