UNCLAIMED WEALTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 16

UNCLAIMED WEALTH

FOUR MILLIONS AWAITING OWNERS Forgotten fortunes totalling nearly £4,000,000 are being cared for by the National Debt Commissioners. The sum represents the value of British Govern went securities and their accumulated dividends which have never been claimed by the original purchasers. One of those holdings—in Consols—is worth nearly £200,000. No one has ever come forward to claim it. An Englishwoman living in Marseilles did not even know that she possessed a fortune amounting to £50,000 with accumulated dividends totalling nearly £20,000. For years she had lived by borrowing or begging from relatives or neighbours. “It is difficult to give the reason for the overlooking of what in many cases are substantial fortunes,” an official of the National Debt Commissioners told a Sunday Express representative. “ Some people go abroad and are never heard of again; others, through illness or old age, simply forget that they own Government stock. “ Both the securities and the dividends accruing can always be claimed. “ But the responsible authorities do not go out of tlvgir way to discover the owners. “ The present practice with unclaimed stock is to wait until a claimant appears, and then to advertise for other claimants “ The Bank of England is responsible for paying out dividends on Government securities. If such dividend is unclaimed it is transferred to an account at the Bank of England kept in the name of the National Debt Commissioners. “There are more than 100 batches of securities worth more than £IO.OOO each —many of them unclaimed for as long as 35 years.”