Scottish Widows
Unless you are from Scotland, or have roamed around there as a traveler, you may not have heard of Scottish Widows Insurance. I’m not sure why Scotland was so diligent about protecting its widows after the Napoleonic War, but in 1815, the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Insurance Society was created in order to ensure the livelihood and provision for widows.
Scottish Widows Life Insurance merged into Lloyds Banking Group in 2000, but Scottish Widows Investment Partnership is one of the largest fund companies in the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of Europe.
So what, you say? Well, if you are from Scotland or if you have relatives there, there was over 74 million UK pounds unclaimed by policy holders as of September 2009. The largest unclaimed sum is over 200,000 pounds, and the average claim is around 2000 pounds. I don’t know about you, but any extra payouts would be nice in life. In March 2010, any sums remaining were designated to the With Profits policy holders and could no longer be claimed.
I’m glad that in North America, funds from closed bank accounts are still waiting for their rightful owners. If you have moved around a lot, had amnesia for a decade or just plain forgot, you may be entitled to funds you left years ago in accounts in the U.S. and Canada banks.
When owners forget about their funds, they are eventually transferred to an unclaimed property trust called an escheat, which is where you can make a claim on your long-lost funds and missing assets. New York alone has over 10 billions dollars in funds left unclaimed, and that is just for one state.
In the U. S. try the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrator site and choose the state you reside in, or one you lived in previously. This will save you a fee that some other websites are charging to provide you with that information.
The Bank of Canada web site has a section on unclaimed funds or missing assets from bank accounts held for decades.
Good luck with this.
