In the dusty archives of the UK's financial institutions there is approximately £15 billion of money waiting to be claimed. That's some £1 billion of life policies; £3 billion of pensions; £3 billion in shares and dividends; £5 billion in banks and building societies; and £3 billion in National Savings. Or, put another way, over £250 for every man, woman and child in the UK. You may find it hard to believe that people lose track of their money, but when banks, building societies, insurance companies and other listed companies merge and change names it can be difficult to keep up. Fail to notify a company of a change of address or lose your documentation and you could find yourself in a similar situation. Don't lose sight of the fact, however, that no matter how long your money has been lost or 'unclaimed' it is still legally yours. Put in a little bit of effort on the investigative front and you could find yourself with a handy little windfall. Search on behalf of a close (or even distant) relative, and you might even find that you are an heir to a fortune you never even knew existed. Bank or building society accounts One of the largest single holders of unclaimed money in the UK is the banking and building society industry. With some £5 billion floating around in their coffers you have to wonder why it hasn't been claimed long ago. A large proportion of this money simply lies in dormant accounts, long forgotten by the people who opened them. Perhaps the account was opened for you long ago when you were a child, or maybe you opened an account to save for a house deposit and the account subsequently fell out of use. If an account has not been used for some time (usually a year for bank accounts and at least three years for building societies), the bank or building society will write to you and ask if you want the account to remain open. If contact has been lost, the bank or building society will no longer send out mail and will class the account as 'dormant'. A dormant account will be treated slightly differently from a live account and there are good reasons for this. It can, for example, stop fraud since it is not good practice to send out statements, cheque books and other material to an out-of-date address. The money on the account (and any interest it accrues) will always remain the property of the account holder or, if the account holder has died, their legal heirs and claiming it is relatively simple. In May 2001, a new service introduced by the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and the Building Societies Association (BSA) made tracing long-lost accounts a pretty straightforward task. Just complete a simple claim form, available from banks, building societies, libraries, the BBA or BSA. The service is free and is aimed at those customers who are unsure which bank or building society the account is with, or where the bank or building society has since closed or merged. For people with internet access, the British Bankers' Association form is also available from their website at www.bba.org.uk. The form can either be returned to the BBA by post or e-mailed. Information on mergers or conversions is also available on the BBA and BSA websites to help customers work out which bank or building society now holds their account. Even if you are not sure which bank or building society the account is with, fill in a form as the BBA and BSA will circulate the details to all their members. Unclaimed investments A staggering £3 billion of unclaimed shares and dividends exist in the UK, with around £800 million of this being attributed to unclaimed demutualisation windfalls. And investors continue to miss out on substantial financial gains, merely by failing to notify companies of changes of address or forgetting to pay in their dividend cheques. Research has indicated that the majority of private investors would prefer share dividends to be paid directly into their bank or building society, a move that would largely alleviate the problem of unclaimed assets. Yet, currently only 30 per cent of shareholders receive their dividend payments by this method. Marriage and death are also high up there on the list of reasons why. And company name changes do not help matters. Since 1995, over 40 of the FTSE 100 companies have undergone a name change or a takeover. There are also those people who simply fail to appreciate the importance of documentation, whether these be share certificates, life or pension policies. And many of these documents all too often end up in the bin. Since investors lose the right to claim dividends after 12 years and windfall shares will be sold for you after three years, it's well worth chasing up old investments. The Unclaimed Assets Register (UAR) is a good place to start if you are looking to trace dividends, related securities and unit trusts. The company also provides a search facility for pensions and life policies, although it only carries details of life policies which are due for payment, not live policies. For example, a policy taken out on the life of a child is unlikely to appear on the database until the life assured is at least 70 years of age. The UAR search facility is particularly useful if you have lost paperwork and only vaguely remember purchasing the shares, or you are recently bereaved and are unsure what assets your deceased partner or relative may have had. The database includes names and addresses of people who own unclaimed assets. All you need to supply therefore is your name and address and any previous names and addresses you have had. You will be charged a flat fee for the service, £15 for dividends and related securities,  £15 for life policy searches and £25 for occupational pensions. You can also search for National Savings and premium bonds at a cost of £12 and £5 respectively, although the UAR recommends that you contact National Savings directly for these searches. Ten per cent of the search fee will be donated to charity at the end of each month by UAR and shared among three charities: Age Concern, the NSPCC and Scope. Pensions One of the easiest ways to lose track of your cash is through an occupational pension scheme. You might have changed jobs on a regular basis or your former employers might have been taken over and changed names. Your first port of call if you are trying to locate a lost pension should be The Pensions Schemes Registry, part of OPRA, the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority. The Pensions Schemes Registry holds details of almost 200,000 UK pension schemes and provides a tracing service free of charge to locate up-to-date contact addresses for pension schemes. Before you contact the Registry, you might like to compile a few details about your scheme in order to help them track it down. The more detail you provide, the more likely they are to come up with a result. First and foremost, you need to establish what type of pension scheme you belonged to. For example, was it an occupational pension scheme, a personal pension scheme or a group personal pension scheme? If the scheme was an occupational one, what was the full name and address of the employer who ran the scheme, did the employer change names or was it part of a larger group of companies? When did you belong to the scheme? For personal pensions, think about the name of the pension scheme, the address it was run from and the name of the insurance company involved with the scheme. Where to look Premium bonds: National Savings contacts winners by post, if you have moved and not told them contact them at this address, if you have the Premium bond number you can check for prizes by visiting www.nationalsavings.co.uk: National Savings, Blackpool, FY3 9YP. National Savings, ordinary accounts: To locate an ordinary account, take your old pass book and proof of identity to any post office in the UK: National Savings, Glasgow, G58 1SB. Telephone: 0141 649 4555. National Savings, savings certificates: To find out the value of savings certificates, please contact the following address: National Savings, Durham, DH99 1NS.  Telephone: 0191 386 4900 Building societies & banks: Fill out a dormant account leaflet (available from any building society or bank) to start a search for forgotten accounts. As well as asking questions about you and the account you will also need to provide proof of your identity, proof of the existence of the account and (if the account is in your name) proof of your legal claim on the account: Building Societies Association, 3 Saville Row, London, W1S 3PB. Telephone: 020 7437 0655. OR, British Bankers Association: Pinners Hall, 105-108 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1EX, Telephone: 020 7216 8800.  If, for whatever reason, the bank or building society cannot agree on the validity of your claim, you have the right to appeal through its internal appeals process. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you have the right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service: Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR, Telephone: 020 7964 1000. Friendly societies: To search for dormant friendly society accounts, please contact (There is a statutory fee to search one society's file of £8.): Registry of Friendly Societies, Victory House, 30-34 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6ES, Telephone: 020 7663 5276. Pensions: Get a pensions trace request form (PR4) from a post office to start a search for any pensions that you might have contributed to but forgotten about. The form can also be obtained from the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA): The Pensions Schemes Registry, PO Box 1NN, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE99 1NN, Telephone: 0191 225 6316. Dividends, investments & life policies: To locate unclaimed life policies, personal pensions, dividends and unit trusts, help is now at hand in the form of the Unclaimed Assets Register (UAR), a commercially run database of lost financial assets: Unclaimed Assets Register, 8 Devonshire Square, Cutlers Gardens, London, EC2M 4PL, Telephone: 0870 241 1713.