RS 25,000 CR WORTH UNCLAIMED MONEY LYING WITH INSURANCE FIRMS

terest on this unclaimed amount during these years.

As for private life insurance companies, ICICI Prudential, HDFC, Reliance Nippon, PNB Metlife, Bajaj Allianz, and Aditya Birla have the largest tranche of unclaimed amounts with them. Together, these companies have over Rs 3,000 crore of unclaimed money lying with them, accounting for more than 60% of the total unclaimed money from the private sector. In the public sector, SBI Life Insurance company has around Rs 384 crore of unclaimed money.

According to sources in insurance companies, money becomes unclaimed when after the death of the policyholder, no one from their family or their nominee comes forward to claim their insured sum. This according to insurance company officials is because many policyholders who buy a life insurance policy for their family to support them after they are gone from this world, do not inform any of their family members about their insurances and due to this ignorance, none come forward to claim the insured amount. However, the government and the IRDAI through various circulars have asked the insurance companies to first try to disburse the amount to the rightful nominee of the policyholders and have also asked insurance companies to ensure that timely payout is given to all the policyholders. Recently, the IRDAI and Central government have said that the insurance companies would have to hold the unclaimed money with them for a period of 10 years, post which if no rightful claimant is found for the policyholder, the unclaimed amount has to be transferred to the Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund to carry out welfare activities for senior citizens.