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Unclaimed money: where to look, for free

Dormant accounts, unclaimed life insurance policies, pension quarters from a first job: the official registries of thirteen countries, and the order in which to search them.

Where to search

Repeat the search for every country in your history — each has its own registries

What to have to hand

  • Your full name and date of birth — and those of the deceased if you are searching for an estate.
  • Maiden names and former names: an account opened before a marriage is filed under the other name.
  • The addresses where you have lived: banks often match on those.
  • Proof of identity, and the death certificate for an estate.
  • The list of employers, placements and summer jobs included, for pensions.

Never pay to search

Every search listed here is free and goes directly to the body holding the money. Private firms offer to “trace your assets” for 15 to 30% of whatever they find: they query the same registries you would, with the same forms. No official body will ever call or email you out of the blue to announce an inheritance.

This page asks for no personal data and takes no steps on your behalf: it lists official registries and sends you to them. Your browser only remembers the country you chose, on this device.

Choose a country to see its official registries.

The list of the country's official registries, and what each one covers.

List compiled from public sources. Always check the site address before entering any data.

Free, no card required, no connection to your bank accounts.

The guide

How an account becomes “forgotten”

In France alone, the Caisse des Dépôts holds several billion euros from dormant bank accounts and unclaimed life insurance policies. It is not lost money: it is money waiting for its owner, and the law organises its return — free of charge, for life in the case of life insurance, for twenty to thirty years for bank accounts.

The mechanism is mechanical, not malicious. An account with no transaction and no contact for ten years is declared dormant; the bank transfers it. A [life insurance policy](lifeInsurance) whose beneficiary the insurer never found follows the same path. A pension quarter paid to an employer that has since disappeared stays on the record, but nobody will remind you to claim it.

Three profiles are over-exposed: people who moved often, people who changed name, and people who worked or lived abroad. The country selector on this page exists for the third case: a placement in Berlin, an account opened in London, a year in Quebec each leave a trace in a different national registry.

How to go about it

  1. Start with the single point of entry

    Where a country has one — Ciclade in France, MissingMoney in the United States, the Unclaimed Assets Register in the UK — it covers several categories at once. Five minutes, and it saves searching bank by bank.

  2. Search under every name you have had

    Birth name, married name, former name, and spelling variants. Matching works on name AND date of birth: one combination can return a result the others miss.

  3. Do not forget pensions

    The most common and most expensive oversight. Your contribution record shows the periods credited; missing ones can be corrected on proof, even thirty years later. One missing quarter can push back a retirement date.

  4. For an estate, search in the deceased's name

    The same registries accept a search in the name of someone who has died, on production of the death certificate. France's AGIRA exists for exactly that: one request queries every insurer.

A full search takes an hour and is done once. What costs is not doing it — and leaving your heirs a list of institutions they have to reconstruct themselves. See also [tracking your wealth without a bank connection](noBank) and [what your net worth is](netWorth).

Once found, do not lose it again

What sits idle ends up lost: a policy never opened, a savings book whose bank you have forgotten. Patrice keeps the inventory of everything you own, with each institution's details — and your family knows where to look. The account is free; the demo shows the app with sample data.

Create my free accountSee the demo

Free, no card required, no connection to your bank accounts.

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Frequently asked questions

No. It asks for no name, no date of birth, no identifier: it lists official registries and sends you to them. Your browser only remembers the country you chose, on this device, so that switching language does not reset the selector.

Yes, every one listed here. That is the entry criterion for the registry: a paid service is not listed. Private firms offering to trace your assets for a percentage query exactly the same bodies, with the same forms.

It depends on the country and the type of asset. In France, sums from dormant accounts are held for twenty years before passing to the State — thirty in the event of the holder's death — and life insurance stays claimable by beneficiaries without a time limit. Elsewhere, limits range from ten years to none at all.

Yes. Registries accept a search in the name of the deceased on proof: death certificate, and evidence that you are an heir or beneficiary. In France, AGIRA queries every insurer from a single request, and Ciclade covers transferred bank accounts.

Yes, each country keeps its own registries and none of them talk to each other. Repeat the search for every country where you held an account, an employer or a policy. For pensions within the European Union, rights are coordinated when you claim, but it is up to you to declare the foreign periods.

Two habits are enough: tell every institution when you move, and keep an up-to-date list of your accounts and policies where your family can find it. That is exactly what Patrice does — but a sheet of paper in a folder already does most of the work.