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Coverage

Unclaimed property

Australia — unclaimed money held by ASIC, and lost superannuation held by the ATO

NationalAUDerived or secondary source

Australia

Rule id
unclaimed.au
Version
1.0.0
In force from
December 15, 1959
Last read against its sources
August 5, 2026
Countries bound
Australia

In plain language

What this regime says.

Australia splits unclaimed money three ways: ASIC holds bank, life-insurance and company money, the ATO holds lost superannuation, and each state and territory revenue office holds everything else. All three searches are free, none of them expires, and ASIC has paid CPI-linked interest since 1 July 2013.

Who is covered

Anyone who has held an Australian bank account, life policy, shareholding or superannuation account.

What you get

The money held, plus CPI-linked interest on ASIC-held money for periods from 1 July 2013.

Where claims go wrong

  • Searching ASIC and stopping. Superannuation is at the ATO and is usually the bigger amount.
  • Not searching the revenue office of every state you have lived in.
  • Assuming a small superannuation balance was cashed out. It was more likely transferred to the ATO.
  • Paying an unclaimed-money agent for three free searches.
The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.
  1. Banking Act 1959 (Cth), s. 69Banking Act 1959 (Cth)URL verified 2026-08-05s. 69 (unclaimed moneys: accounts inactive for the prescribed period are paid to the Commonwealth and held by ASIC, and are payable to the person entitled through the ADI)
  2. Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 (Cth)Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 (Cth)URL verified 2026-08-05payment of unclaimed superannuation and lost-member accounts to the Commissioner of Taxation, and the member's right to have it paid out or transferred

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

The clocks it starts

  • There is no deadline for claiming this propertyUnclaimed money held by ASIC is claimable by the rightful owner with no time limit. The same is true of superannuation held by the ATO. Nothing is forfeited by delay.Banking Act 1959 (Cth), s. 69 — s. 69 (unclaimed moneys: accounts inactive for the prescribed period are paid to the Commonwealth and held by ASIC, and are payable to the person entitled through the ADI)Filing window

What it entitles you to, beyond money

  • A right to reclaim that no delay defeatsThe administrator holds this property as custodian. It never becomes the state's money, so there is no point at which it becomes too late to ask, and a gap of decades is not an answer to your claim. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise — including a finder trying to create urgency.s. 69 (unclaimed moneys: accounts inactive for the prescribed period are paid to the Commonwealth and held by ASIC, and are payable to the person entitled through the ADI)
  • Interest or indexation on the sum heldSince 1 July 2013 ASIC pays interest on unclaimed money it holds, calculated by reference to the movement in the Consumer Price Index. That makes Australia one of the few jurisdictions where an unclaimed balance keeps pace with inflation rather than quietly shrinking — but it is calculated from 1 July 2013 at the earliest, so money that went unclaimed long before then lost value in the years before that date.s. 69 (unclaimed moneys: accounts inactive for the prescribed period are paid to the Commonwealth and held by ASIC, and are payable to the person entitled through the ADI)
  • A route for heirs and estatesThe executor or administrator claims with the death certificate and the grant. For superannuation, note that a death benefit may not form part of the estate at all — it can be payable to a dependant under a binding nomination, which overrides the will. Ask the fund, or the ATO, who the beneficiary of record is.s. 69 (unclaimed moneys: accounts inactive for the prescribed period are paid to the Commonwealth and held by ASIC, and are payable to the person entitled through the ADI)
  • A free search of the official registerSearching the ASIC unclaimed money search on Moneysmart costs nothing and requires no account, no fee and no intermediary. Search under every name you have used.

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

A "recovery agent" or "asset locator" contacts you first

high likelihood

A firm writes or calls saying it has located money in your name and will recover it for a share — commonly a quarter to a half — and asks you to sign a locator agreement before it will tell you where the money is or who holds it.

What answers it

Every register in this product is free to search and free to claim from, and the office holding the money will not pay a finder any faster than it pays you. You do not need to know where the money is to find it: search the official portal for your own name. If you have already signed, check the statutory finder rules for the jurisdiction — most void an agreement made within a defined window after the property reached the administrator and cap the fee thereafter, and an agreement that breaks those rules is unenforceable against you.

"The owner is deceased and you have not proved you are entitled"

high likelihood

The register holds property in a dead relative's name and the administrator asks for grant of probate, letters of administration or an equivalent that the family never obtained because the estate looked too small to be worth administering.

What answers it

Ask the office what its small-estate route is before you pay for probate. Most administrators will pay a modest sum to a surviving spouse or next of kin on an affidavit of heirship, a death certificate and proof of relationship, precisely because requiring a grant for a small balance would mean nobody ever claims it. Where the sum is large enough to need a grant, the existence of the asset is itself the reason to obtain one.

"We cannot match you to this record"

high likelihood

The administrator cannot tie the claimant to the reported owner because the address on the holder's record is decades old, the name is spelled differently, or a middle initial is missing.

What answers it

This is an evidential problem, not a refusal, and it is solved with documents rather than argument. Send whatever ties your identity to the address the holder reported: an old driving licence, a utility bill, a tax return, a lease, a bank statement, a marriage certificate for a name change, or a sworn statement where nothing else survives. Ask the office in writing which specific element it cannot match so you answer the actual gap rather than resending what it already has.

Where to take it next

  1. Search the ASIC unclaimed money search on Moneysmart yourselfStart here, before anything else. Search every version of your name, former names, common misspellings, and the names of deceased relatives whose estate you may share in. Note the record reference for anything that matches.Claim directtypically 1 daysofficial page
  2. Ask the holder directly for anything not yet reportedProperty only reaches the register after the dormancy period, so the most recent money is still with the bank, insurer, employer or company that owes it. Write to them as well as searching the register, and ask specifically whether they hold any balance, dividend, refund or benefit in your name and whether it has been reported as unclaimed.Claim directtypically 30 days
  3. File a claim with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for bank, life-insurance and company money, and the Australian Taxation Office for superannuationThe claim form is free. Send it with proof of identity and proof of the connection between you and the address the holder reported. Keep a copy of everything you send and note the claim reference.Regulatortypically 90 daysofficial page
  4. Challenge a refusalBinding on themA refusal is an administrative decision, and administrative decisions can be reviewed. Ask in writing for the reason and for the internal review or appeal route, in that order. Only a very small number of unclaimed-property claims ever need a court, and almost all of those are disputes between rival claimants to the same estate rather than fights with the administrator.Court

Documents

What this regime can produce.

Every one of these is a document you send yourself, in your own name. Duesday never writes to anybody on your behalf and is never anyone’s agent.

The same claim type elsewhere

England & Wales — unclaimed estates and bona vacantia (Administration of Estates Act 1925 s. 46)GB-EAWSub-national — United KingdomAdministration of Estates Act 1925 (c. 23), s. 46(1)(vi)Confidence: mediumFrance — comptes inactifs et contrats en déshérence (loi Eckert; Ciclade)FRNational — FranceCode monétaire et financier, art. L. 312-20Confidence: highDeutschland — nachrichtenlose Konten (no central register; claim against the bank)DENational — GermanyBürgerliches Gesetzbuch, §§ 195, 199Confidence: lowIreland — dormant accounts and unclaimed life assurance (Dormant Accounts Act 2001)IENational — IrelandDormant Accounts Act 2001 (No. 32 of 2001)Confidence: mediumItalia — rapporti dormienti e il Fondo presso CONSAP (L. 266/2005, art. 1, commi 343–345)ITNational — ItalyLegge 23 dicembre 2005, n. 266, art. 1, commi 343–345Confidence: mediumNederland — slapende tegoeden (bank and insurer registers; no statutory escheat)NLNational — NetherlandsBurgerlijk Wetboek, Boek 3, art. 3:306 and 3:307Confidence: lowEspaña — saldos y depósitos abandonados (Ley 33/2003, art. 18)ESNational — SpainLey 33/2003, de 3 de noviembre, del Patrimonio de las Administraciones Públicas, art. 18Confidence: mediumSwitzerland — dormant assets at Swiss banks (Banking Act art. 37m; Banking Ordinance arts. 45–59)CHNational — SwitzerlandBundesgesetz über die Banken und Sparkassen (Banking Act), art. 37mConfidence: medium

Other rights in the same countries

Australia — Australia Post compensation and Express Post guaranteeAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Postal Corporation Act 1989 and Australia Post’s Terms and ConditionsConfidence: lowAustralia — Australian Consumer Law consumer guaranteesAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law, s 60 (guarantee as to due care and skill)Confidence: highAustralia — Australian Consumer Law unfair contract terms and misleading conductAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law, ss.23-28 (unfair contract terms)Confidence: mediumAustralia — ePayments Code and Australian Consumer LawAUNational — AustraliaePayments Code (ASIC), Chapter CConfidence: mediumAustralia — Medicare, bulk billing, the MBS and informed financial consentAUNational — AustraliaHealth Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), s. 20AConfidence: mediumAustralia — Part IVA representative proceedingsAUNational — AustraliaFederal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), Part IVAConfidence: mediumAustralia — single price rule, ACL s.48AUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law, s.48 (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Sch. 2)Confidence: mediumAustralia — State operator passenger charters (NSW TrainLink, V/Line, Queensland Rail) and the Australian Consumer LawAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2) and the state operators' customer chartersConfidence: low

Does this one reach your facts?

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Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.