HOLMES AND THE LOST MILLIONS - Qantas Club March
1996
Vast fortunes lie unclaimed in government vaults across Australia.
Using his powers of deduction (and an army of contacts) a Victorian
detective is helping some of that booty find its way to its rightful
owners. Barbara reports
Graham Holmes, an Australian nurse turned tour guide, was playing
poker in Las Vegas
in 1980 when he fell into conversation with a man who specialised
in recovering unclaimed money. The player explained how when his mother had died he had discovered
papers that showed she had been eligible 12 years before for a generous
payout from the US Government. The money was a refund offered on
final payment of a settler’s loan. The man filled out the necessary
forms, collected the money then wondered how much other money might
be waiting to be claimed. A business was born.
Holmes filed the information away until, back in Australia years
later, he set up the company in 1993. It was such a protracted agony of
red tape and trust accounts he almost gave up. But in 1995/6, Money
Finders turned over its first million.
Unclaimed money comes from uncollected lotto prizes, wages,
superannuation, insurance payouts, TAB winnings, old bank accounts
dating back to early 1900 belonging to relatives, unpresented cheques, rental
bonds, legacies and share dividends, the
oldest, being money dating back to the 1880’s.
Holmes says only one per cent
of claimants are aware of where their money is from.
On a fee-for-service basis, (ranging from 5% to 50% of amount
recovered depending where the money is, what they have to do to
recover, if a court case is involved and what documentation needs to
be supplied) Money Finders locates amounts ranging
from only a few hundred to several thousand dollars and returns
them to their owners who are invariably surprised – and delighted
– to receive money they never knew they had.
Due to privacy issues the location of this money
can only be divulged to the correct person after proof has been
established. This protects the identity and privacy of the correct
person, as there are other people with the same name who should not
be entitled to know about this financial detail.
Among the largest amounts recovered was $175,000 owed to a Western
Australian man who had moved to the east coast and changed his name
slightly. By the time Holmes was on the case the man and his wife
were both dead, so the money had reverted to his estate. To further
complicate matters, the couple’s two daughters, their sole beneficiaries,
had both remarried and changed their names.
Money Finders is now working on the tantalising case of an Indian
man who is owed $502,000 in unclaimed dividends. Holmes believes
the man once taught at an Australian university and has since returned
to India. His name is the equivalent
of Smith on the densely populated subcontinent.
Holmes sports an earring and an open-neck shirt in place of a deerstalker
and pipe, but his detective skills are every bit as good as those
of a famous namesake who shared rooms at Baker Street with Dr. Watson.
Money Finders begins its investigations by firstly establishing
that money is available. With the help
of no fewer than 250 contacts in bureaucracies and institutions
around the country – the company begins tracing the claimant.
Holmes and his staff of four might search stock exchange records,
titles offices, electoral rolls here and overseas, registrars of
births, deaths and marriages, death notices in newspaper archives,
and the white and yellow pages on CD-ROM for the whole of Australia,
UK, Thailand, Singapore, North America and Canada. (Sherlock Holmes never had it so good!)
If there is an old address, he might go doorknocking, seeking
information about people who have moved, remarried or died, but
who have surviving relatives entitled to the claim. Every skerrick
of information helps; the name of a solicitor, or the agent who
sold the house.
Leads also take Holmes overseas occasionally, especially to South-East Asia, which has its own reels of red tape. At
the moment, he is trying to secure money for a client in Bosnia.
“That’s been a bit of a nightmare, getting the letter to them for
a start. The first one had to be hand-delivered.” For want of one photocopied document among other proof already
provided, the institution is balking at the claim. But
Holmes has been trying to persuade its officials to give his clients
a break. They’re desperate and they’d really appreciate the money
to buy food, fuel and clothing.”
Once Money Finders has satisfied authorities the rightful owner
has been found, the company retrieves the money, deducts its fee
(for the protection of all parties, this is done through a trust
account), and forwards the balance to the client, usually within
12 to 16 weeks, along with an explanation of where the money was
located.
Money Finders does not divulge this information until it has the
authority to collect, otherwise the claimant could take advantage
of the company’s efforts in locating and returning the claim. Fees
depend on the costs and detective work involved, but generally range
from five per cent up to fifty percent if the person has died.
Claimants are not obliged to engage Money Finders. Anyone can hunt
out their own unclaimed money. But it can be hard to tract and harder
to retrieve. For example, the company in which a claimant has shares
may have gone into liquidation or been taken over four or five times
since the investments were made.
Besides, if you don’t know you are owned money, why would you look
for it? “You wouldn’t, no one does,” Holmes says. “People don’t come
to us to find their money. It’s the other way around. We find their
money and approach them.”
Other impediments to the recovery of money include mistakes made
in the transfer of date, confusion over common names such as John
William Smith, and pedantic requests for proof, such as a gas bill
dating back many years to a previous address.
But ignorance is the biggest stumbling block in the unclaimed revenue
business. Money Finders sends out 150 new letters a day to people
who may be entitled to unclaimed money, but only five to 15 per
cent respond. “When people get a letter from Money Finders they
think: “OK, who’s this shonk’, what person would give money
back!?” Holmes says.
“We advise them that they are signing a legal document and suggest
they talk to their solicitor if they have any doubts. Unfortunately,
some people have told us their solicitor says, ‘It’s rubbish – throw
it out’ which really is trowing money down the drain. We have 30
calls a day asking, ‘Is this fair dinkum’?”
This writer has no doubts. I’m pleased to report a Money Finders’
cheque is in the mail to me, the proceeds from a long-lost bank
account.
Barbara Hooks is a freelance writer based in Melbourne.
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