UPDATE: The Experian Unclaimed Asset Register (UAR) was decommissioned on 29th August 2022. Find out how you can continue to uncover lost and dormant assets with Estatesearch.
In the 4th article of our ‘product in focus’ series, we look at the Experian Unclaimed Asset Register (UAR), and why we include it in our Financial Profile Premium Service.Experian cites the most common reasons for losing touch with assets as change of address, illegal activity, failure to update your address details and death.
Given the increasing likelihood that many of us will be diagnosed with degenerative illnesses before we die, it seems likely that failing to update financial institutions with new addresses could be the most significant cause of people losing touch with their assets.
What is the Unclaimed Assets Register?
When Experian re-launched its Unclaimed Assets Register in 2011, the service claimed to contain the details of account holders who had ‘lost’ £20 billion worth of assets.
Some of the biggest financial brands in the UK, including insurers, pension providers, financial institutions, and some listed companies, let Experian know when an account has lain untouched for a certain period of time (usually seven years), and these accounts are then available to be searched as a part of the register.
As such, Experian’s Unclaimed Assets Register, is a vital piece of the puzzle for Estate Administrators, Attorneys and Deputies trying to ensure that they have built a complete picture of a client’s estate and can return any lost assets.
Why do we include the Unclaimed Asset Register in our services and what are the benefits?
As part of our Financial Profile Premium service, Estatesearch routinely searches the UAR to try to locate difficult-to-find accounts.
Although consumers or solicitors can undertake a search of the UAR themselves, we believe that the service really comes into its own as part of Estatesearch’s Financial Profile Premium service. This is because of the additional work that Estatesearch does with a variety of data sources to build a complete picture of the Subject’s name and address history, any dates of birth that may have been used erroneously, and then presents these in their entirety to be searched against the UAR.
Our research suggests that the tracing work that we undertake can dramatically increase the chance of finding matches to assets with UAR, and with other financial institutions.
For consumers and solicitors ordering direct, the results of the search are available in 2 working days. However, this does not present a complete picture of all assets. For those who are reviewing the whole estate through the Estatesearch Financial Profile Premium service, the results of the UAR search are available as soon as a found account is notified to Estatesearch, but are also included in the final report of the full Financial Profile, which includes all assets and liabilities matched.
For businesses who have undertaken searches to try to re-unite accounts with customers with whom they have lost touch, they can get in touch with Experian to include their lost accounts in the UAR and allow it to be searched by Estatesearch.
Click here for the rest of our ‘Product in Focus Series’
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Product in Focus Series
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