Free Listpals app saving families money

Since 2011 all the major high street banks have transferred unclaimed accounts into the government’s Dormant Assets Scheme.

The government has seized £600 million to date and not surprisingly it has just announced its intention to expand the scheme further to include forgotten insurance and share accounts.

It is estimated that families will be losing forgotten assets with a value in excess of £2 billion.

The government seeks to use these captured funds for various charitable causes but this does not change the fact families are allowing money to slip through their fingers.

However Omagh husband and wife John and Louise Magee have created the Listpals App which can be downloaded via the Apple or Google Play stores.

The app makes it easy to highlight the existence of assets (bank accounts, insurance, shares etc) and share these with chosen loves ones without divulging any details that would risk security (such as accounts numbers or values).

In the event of the person dying the loved ones will be able to track every asset with the relevant institution and ensure that no accounts or policies are overlooked. The Listpals App was created after Louise and John’s fathers passed within a nine month period.

John Magee said: “It is incredibly difficult and time consuming to try and trace every account or insurance policy a loved one held.

“In the past people banked with the same institution all their lives and did everything with them.

“Now there are so many organisations, some of which are only online.

“Even the so called traditional banks are moving everything online and encouraging paperless transactions. This makes it even more likely that accounts can be overlooked or policies remain unclaimed. The Listpals App ensures that families do not lose out and it is completely free. Every pound that lies in a forgottten bank account is a pound lost to a family.

“It is wrong to think that this issue only affects wealthy families as the opposite is likely to the case.”