Engage Mutual on Hornbeam Park Avenue in Harrogate has been working with a team of TV researchers and genealogists to track down recipients of unclaimed funds it holds on behalf of customers or their beneficiaries.
The programme, Missing Millions, features heart warming stories of unexpected windfalls and will be aired on ITV’s prime time 8pm slot, with the first of three episodes starting next Tuesday 13th September.
Engage Mutual has been running its initiative to track and trace the owners of unclaimed funds for nearly two years and has so far reunited more than £1.5m.
Steve Barry, director of operations at the mutual, commented:
Working with a TV production company, alongside our existing track and trace programme, proved to be a great opportunity to solve some of the particularly challenging cases relating to the unclaimed funds we hold.
The problem of unclaimed money is widespread, with an estimated £15bn-£20bn lying in UK financial institutions.
Steve continued:
Tracing the owners of unclaimed funds is invariably a time consuming and often complicated process, and clearly, it would be preferable that money stays permanently connected to its rightful owners.
The mutual is introducing an awareness initiative and checklist to help customers avoid losing touch with their financial affairs.
Quite simple oversights, such as forgetting to update a change of address, can result in sums of money that were intended for a particular purpose, lying forgotten, or unknown, and consequently unclaimed.
I like this, I recently too found money, not millions, but close a thousand pounds. While in school I forgot about a checking account. Sure enough, ten years later, boom!. But I used a full service site foundmoney, for a small flat fee they provide everything, saves the hassle.