The Irish Insurance Federation has had preliminary discussions with the Department of Finance concerning the issue of dormant accounts in the insurance industry.
While the IIF feels to some extent that the legislation is being visited upon them because of ‘the sins of the banks’, the dilemma for them is to find a way to get access to dormant policies without infringing individual policy holders’ rights.
‘There was some speculation about the amount of unclaimed life policy proceeds, so we surveyed our members to see what the figure actually was and came up with just over IEP7 million,’ according to Mike Kemp, chief executive of the IIF.
He added, ‘This represents policies where the maturity value hasn’t been claimed within 6 months of the policy maturity date. I think the Department of Finance are talking about a much longer period than that, so the final figure could obviously be lower.’
Kemp said the average value of a policy paid out last year was around IEP2,900 and, put in the context of the IEP2 billion paid out every year, the IEP7 million estimate was not a very significant figure. The IIF estimates do not include death claims, because by their very nature they are open ended, or claims that are being processed but delayed.
Meanwhile, Ann Fitzgerald, Secretary General of the Irish Association of Investment Managers, said the IAIM has not had any contact with the Department of Finance on dormant accounts, as it has not come up as an issue with her members at this stage. |
