Unclaimed asset in Colonial Mutual

Housegirl

I hope you get somewhere because  as I said before I can’t get anywhere ,  please let me know how you get on 

GFUNK_3

I received a letter from rightful claims which is part of Worthington Clark pty Ltd. I didn't email the one given but rather the company itself. They emailed me back confirming it was not a scam and requested the ref no on the letter. It was also about colonial mutual which I and my son investigated. It seems legitimate though but if you think you have a claim call aviva life and mention winterthur were the company that took over colonial. I'll let you know what happens. 

gdgarydavies

Hi have you proceeded any further with Rightful claims, they sent a letter to my 91 year old father saying there was an asset in his name due to shares in Colonial mutual and attached to his name at an address he lived at over 40 years ago. We replied and said they could proceed to collect on his behalf at a percentage return for them if successful. They have now sent further paperwork for Dad to sign, one of these is to give them limited power of Attorney, I find this quite concerning as I have power of attorney already and understand how powerful this is. Help if you can please.  

gps7800

I have an old colonial pension scheme UK and I cannot located the administrators of this scheme. Can anyone help me locate the administrators of this scheme. I have tried on GOV web sites but to no avail.

xylophone

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2002/sep/05/consumeraffairs.lifeinsurance  - this is old  and refers to the takeover by Winterthur Life but it appears that Winterthur itself has been subject to takeover.
See

https://www.abi.org.uk/data-and-resources/tools-and-resources/find-lost-pension/?p=3#page-list-751a5518bf634758a1685e18378b52a8

Sydney456

Hello, I realise this is quite an old thread, but I thought I would share some information for anyone looking to locate the shares they received from the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society way back when. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of knowledge about the policies themselves - so can't help with that! 

TL/DR - Contact Link Market Services to locate your shareholdings and unpaid dividends (shares will be for Commonwealth Bank of Australia assuming you didn't sell).  Unclaimed monies in Australia may be transferred to both state and federal bodies - you can claim this if you have the details and patience to do it yourself.  (See below for links)

As a bit of background....
Colonial Mutual was an Australian company. As has been mentioned in this thread, it was demutualised in the late 1990s - meaning the company was listed and many customers at the time received shares in the company (including in the UK).  In 2000, around the same time Colonial was looking to exit its UK life business, the company merged with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).  CBA shares were granted to the Colonial shareholders as part of this merger. The sale of the life business to Winterthur didn't impact this share transaction. 

Who to contact about your CBA shares...
Link Market Services operates CBA's share registry. You will need to contact them to locate your shareholding and any dividends that may be owing to you. Unfortunately, you will need to contact their Australian office. Contact details are on CBA's website.
https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/investors/share-registry-services.html

Ideally you would have an old holding statement with your Securityholder Reference Number (SRN) or Holder Identification Number (HIN) to help identify yourself. If you don't have this, you can still locate your shareholding, but you will need to be able to provide the relevant details they have on file relating to the holding. A

Unclaimed monies / assets in Australia generally...
Unfortunately there isn't one place to look for missing money or assets in Australia. There are also laws around when monies should be transferred to state or federal bodies or if they are exempt. So it can be a bit of a minefield. 

Best places to look for money that has been transferred to the Government already is as follows:

ASIC (Federal Body) - https://moneysmart.gov.au/find-unclaimed-money 
Various State Bodies (contains links to individual State registers) - https://moneysmart.gov.au/find-unclaimed-money/money-held-by-state-governments

If you are looking for unclaimed dividends, make sure you go back to the company's share registry (Link is one such company, but there are many others) to give them your updated banking details too - you want to make sure they give you anything that has not yet transferred to the government, as well as the future payments (assuming you are still a shareholder).

My understanding of the asset finding agencies like Worthington Clark is that they use these registers to find individuals with unclaimed monies, attempt to make contact, and then facilitate the process to have this remitted to yourself for a finders fee. If you know where to look, you can technically do this yourself, but you may find it more convenient to get someone else to do it. 

I hope that helps anyone looking for shares from Colonial.

Hopefully the previous posters have resolved their matters on this, but if they haven't then feel free to message me and I'll try to help as best I can. 

lingifled123

Hi sydney456 I am trying to locate details for 2 policies holders that have since past away.  I amusure if they have shares but have paperwork relating to them so there is a possibility.  I have tried links above but one doesn’t exist the other wants to check each state.  Do I have to try them all?