Millions of euro left sitting in accounts

MILLIONS of euro in forgotten money are sitting in bank accounts across Ireland.

The money includes eircom shares worth 21 million and life assurance returns of about €30m.

The National Lottery said around 1% of their prizes go unclaimed, amounting to €6m and more than €1m has been left unclaimed in Prize Bonds.

More than 32,000 shareholders who purchased shares in the 1999 eircom flotation have failed to claim their money following the acquisition of the company by the Valentia consortium in 2001.

The money is being held in a bank account under the name of the company registrars, Computershare, and is earning interest.

Eircom will launch a drive in the autumn to draw attention to these unclaimed shares.

They will place adverts in newspapers and set up a helpline to encourage investors to claim the money. Eircom said many people may simply have forgotten they hold the shares but they hope the drive will increase attention.

Meanwhile, some 7,000 Prize Bond prizes have gone unclaimed, with some prizes dating back to 1957, the year Prize Bonds started. Three prizes of around €20,000 each are among the unclaimed money.

The forgotten prizes represent less than 1% of the prizes won since 1990.

Last year’s National Lottery accounts showed between €6-7m remained unclaimed but this also represents just 1% of all prizes.

The largest unclaimed jackpot is €3.4m, which was bought in Dublin in June 2001, and some €11m in jackpots has been left unclaimed over the years.

According to a National Lottery spokeswoman unclaimed money is returned back to the prize pool.

The value of the Dormant Accounts Fund to the end of September this year stands at €227m.

Around €200m of this is generated from bank and building society accounts that have been left untouched for 15 years. The remaining €30m refers to unclaimed life assurance policies.

Around €20m has been paid out to good causes from the Dormant Account fund, €4m so far this year.

Under the terms of the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003, life assurance companies are required to contact the owners of policies with whom they may have lost contact over the years.

If a policyholder comes forward at any time, they will still be able to reclaim the full amount they would have been entitled to receive.

Jennifer Hogan of the Irish Insurance Federation said a change of address is one of the main reasons policies are left unclaimed.

“If you are moving house you should always inform your insurance company. Also it’s important to keep all vital document in case people sorting our your estate are unaware that you hold a life assurance policy,” said Ms Hogan.