Claiming over $160 million in unclaimed money just got easier
25 February 2021
Now it’s a whole lot easier to navigate the claims process through the Public Trustee’s unclaimed money portal due to the launch of an easy-to-use, online, interactive guide.
Acting Public Trustee of Queensland and CEO Samay Zhouand said the Public Trustee currently has over 1.4 million individual entries listed on its online database, making up more than $160 million in unclaimed money.
“With over 130 claims received each month from people searching for unclaimed money through the Public Trustee’s website, we want to make it as easy as possible to unite people with their forgotten funds,” Mr Zhouand said.
The new interactive guide is the latest initiative from the Public Trustee’s Customers First Agenda, developed to meet the needs of customers and improve customers’ experience.
“Since early this year, the Public Trustee has been working with Customer and Government Reference groups to ensure the voice of the customer drives continuous improvement and change,” he said.
“The Public Trustee’s greater engagement with customers has helped to make unclaimed money application forms even simpler and easier for customers.
“By making the process as simple as possible, it saves time for our customers, improves customer satisfaction and better enables them to connect with their monies.”
Each year the Public Trustee receives unclaimed moneys for safekeeping. For the 2019-2020 financial year, the Public Trustee received a total of $18.1 million in unclaimed moneys from a variety of sources, such as utility companies, real estate agencies, pawnbrokers and investment companies.
“Unclaimed moneys are funds that are held by certain persons, organisations, or even from a deceased estate that have remained unclaimed by the owner for a statutory period,” Mr Zhouand said.
“The Public Trustee has been safeguarding unclaimed money since the 1960s, with the largest claim over $500,000, while many smaller claims are just a few dollars.”
“Making a claim is easy, simply go to the unclaimed money portal on the Public Trustee’s website and use the interactive guide to follow the lodgement steps. Our staff can also assist you wherever possible throughout the claims process if needed.
“I encourage all Queenslanders to find out if they are owed any money by simply searching our unclaimed moneys register, and using the new interactive guide to make a claim,” he said.
For more information on unclaimed moneys or the Public Trustee and our services, visit www.pt.qld.gov.au or phone 1300 360 044.