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Malaysians have $105m in unclaimed insurance

This article is more than 12 months old

PETALING JAYA More than RM327 million (S$105.1 million) due to the beneficiaries of life insurance policies in Malaysia has not been claimed in the past five years.

The money is from policies that had matured but remain unclaimed, according to the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM).

Last year alone, about RM64 million was submitted by its member companies to the Registrar of Unclaimed Money, which is under the Accountant-General's Department, it said.

In a statement to The Star recently, LIAM said this was the total value of "516,728 matured life insurance policies (that) have been forgotten by the policyholders and their beneficiaries".

LIAM also said that almost all the policyholders affected by this issue were unreach­able, mostly because of outdated contact information.

"Continuous attempts would be taken to contact policyholders or beneficiaries before the mandatory submission to the registrar is due," it said.

"Mandatory submission as per the law is usually one year after the cheques issued in their names are returned and all efforts to contact the claimants have failed."

One member company, Etiqa Insurance, noted in a separate statement that there were RM13 million worth of lost and forgotten policies within Etiqa itself.

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