Unclaimed Money Updates

Latest news about Unclaimed Money Updates: The wave of bankruptcies that swept across the country during the recession has seen the government’s unclaimed bankruptcy account leap by about 45% as the feds seized money and assets belonging to insolvent consumers.

In March 2007, before the global credit crunch started shocking banks around the world, the feds held $9.375 million in their unclaimed bankruptcy fund account.

By May 5 of this year that balance had jumped to $13.6 million.

The unclaimed funds include money seized by government from both people and businesses that declare bankruptcy and are held in trust until creditors claim them.

As of May 5 there were 77,281 records or accounts in trust stretching back decades with the largest single amount on file standing at $179,636.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, which manages the accounts, also runs an online database that goes back to April 1, 1994. People looking for money can search the database by their own name or the name of the person or company that went bankrupt.

Records from before 1994 are kept on paper in the office’s archives and remain a little more cumbersome to find.

According to statistics gathered by the government, the surge of bankruptcies that flooded the system during the downturn were all on the personal side with consumer bankruptcies in 2009 up almost 15% over 2008, and bankruptcies in 2010 up almost 26% over the previous year.

On the flipside business bankruptcies in 2009 were down by 3% over 2008 and in 2010 were down 12.5% over the previous year.

We provide a service for the true owners of unclaimed money which has been left untouched for six or more years in companies such as financial institutions and insurance companies.
This list was updated in October 2009.

Unclaimed money is not income tax refunds or any other unpaid tax refunds. Find out if you could be entitled to a tax refund.

If you believe you are entitled to unclaimed money please send us your name, address, IRD number and proof of identity (for example a copy of a birth certificate, driver’s licence or passport) by email to: unclaimed.monies@ird.govt.nz
or by mail to:
Unclaimed Money
Inland Revenue
PO Box 38222
Wellington Mail Centre 5045