A dormant account is a customer’s account at banks or financial institutions that has seen no activity, with the possible exception of interest deposits, for a long period of time. The owner may have forgotten about the account, moved out of town without leaving a forwarding address, or died.
What were the reasons and ways of losing the inheritance?
Great migration:
Politically exposed people:
Practically, each adult can open an account in a financial institution. However, banks reserve their right to refuse clients. A bank can refuse to open an account to a so-called “politically exposed person“ whom a bank assumes could risk its reputation if such a person became their client. Therefore, these people opened accounts in different countries which after they died were not included in their patrimony.
Geographic changes:
Great political and social events inspired many people to make great decisions. Many people traveled to America, Asia, or Africa but also such migration was high within Europe, too. Stories about rich agricultural countries in Oregon or gold in California and Alaska made many people become pioneers who search better life. Some of them were not so lucky. They did not come back home and left their money in bank accounts.
Investments in a different currency:
Accounts in banks could also be opened due to the advantage of a particular currency with an idea to invest in such currency at a certain time.
Find out more about the reasons and ways of losing the inheritance.
How to find out if you are an heir?
To begin with, you will need the first and last names of your ancestors you so that you can use them to search the WIOLP database to increase your chances of finding a potential match.
If you have initial information about your ancestors but are missing additional information, click on the link of our partner MyHeritage with more than 20 billion historical records where you can discover more about your family’s past.
When searching for lost inheritance in our WIOLP database, use all the names of your ancestors that you’ve found.
Names can have multiple spellings, variations, or middle initials. So try different spellings and combinations of names, and try using variations such as nicknames, middle names, and birth names. This increases the possibility of a match, as the names may have been recorded differently over time.
Don’t worry. Every country has its own policies and processes for allowing people to reclaim assets from dormant accounts.
So banks or financial institutions have a process for handling these dormant accounts. You just have to go through the process of locating and claiming it.
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Register now and find lost inheritance left by your ancestors in financial institutions.
