How life insurance companies and benefit fund friendly societies lodge unclaimed money claims
When a consumer finds that they are entitled to unclaimed money provided to ASIC by a life insurance company or a benefit fund friendly society (life company/friendly society), they should contact the life company/friendly society to begin their claim. When the life company/friendly society is satisfied that the person is entitled to the unclaimed money, the life company/friendly society will make a claim to ASIC on behalf of the entitled person. The Life Insurance Act 1995 requires ASIC to pay the money to the life company/friendly society, which must then pay the entitled person.
The information provided on this page is to assist life companies/friendly societies to make a claim to ASIC.
How a life company/friendly society lodges a claim
For all claims being requested for return, the life company/friendly society must verify the identity of each claimant in accordance with your customer due diligence obligations, including under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, as applicable. The life company/friendly society must ensure that identification and entitlement for each claimant listed in the csv have been satisfactorily verified before you lodge an unclaimed money claim to ASIC.
Upon receiving the claim, providing the CSV claim form is in the required format, it will be processed and the funds returned to the life company/friendly society.
A CSV claim form is an Excel spreadsheet and contains:
Header record: Where the life company’s/friendly society’s information is entered (row 1).
Detail record/s: Where the unclaimed money record is entered (rows 2, 3, etc).
Original Transaction Numbers (OTN): A unique number to identify the unclaimed money record. Each Detail record must have an OTN and these can be located by searching for the unclaimed money record on MoneySmart.
To make an Excel spreadsheet into a CSV claim form you will need to save it as a comma delimited file format (.csv). To do this, use ‘save as’ to change the spreadsheet type to .csv.
The CSV claim form has a specific format that must be complied with for ASIC’s system to receive and process the claim. Our downloadable guide to the CSV claim form includes the information to be included and the required format.
Subject: Life insurance company/Friendly society unclaimed money claims for [insert your company]
[Your life insurance company/friendly society name]
We certify that the identity of the claimant/s and their entitlement to the policy proceeds as set in this attached CSV claim form have been established to our satisfaction and that the money will be paid to the named person upon receipt of the money from ASIC. We have verified the identity of these claimants in accordance with customer identification obligations, including under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, as applicable.
It is therefore requested that the refund be made in accordance with terms of section 216 of the Life Insurance Act 1995.
<Name of person submitting the email>
<Position of person>
<Contact phone number>
Lodging your CSV claim form by email assists ASIC in processing the claim as quickly as possible.
As a life company/friendly society, if you have internal privacy or security policies which would prevent you making your claim by email with an attached CSV claim form, please send an email to unclaimed.money@asic.gov.au outlining:
details as to why you can’t use the email process; and
what alternative you propose so that the information can be provided to ASIC electronically, but complying with your security/privacy policy.
We will consider these issues on a case-by-case basis.
Receiving payment of the claim
If you have previously provided us with bank account details, the payment will be forwarded by electronic fund transfer to that account and you will be notified. If we do not have your account details, a cheque will be posted to your contact address.
If you would like to provide us with your bank account details, please request an EFT details notification form by emailing unclaimed.money@asic.gov.au.
Receiving payment of the claim
If you have previously provided us with bank account details, the payment will be forwarded by electronic fund transfer to that account and you will be notified. If we do not have your account details, a cheque will be posted to your contact address.
If you would like to provide us with your bank account details, please request an EFT details notification form by emailing unclaimed.money@asic.gov.au.
Payment of interest on claims
From 1 July 2013 when uncliamed money is paid to a claimant, the Commonwealth of Australia will also pay interest. Both the original amounts and the iterest must be paid to the claimant.
A detailed payment summary will be provided within 5 working days of the payment to assist in identifying the original and interest amounts.
The amount of interest and the method of calculating the interest is determed by Regulations.
