Missing Is Possible!
~ a different version of ‘mission impossible’ of expecting the unexpected.
This is a true account of unclaimed money.
For the past two years I had been receiving numerous phone calls informing me that I had a sum of unclaimed money kept in the government treasury. I refused to believe it as the callers were trying to deviate from disclosing the source of money unless I have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with their company binding me to pay the company 20% of the claimed amount. All this while I suspected it to be a ploy and I felt quite disturbed and weary of the phone calls coming from the company especially when my phone rang at the most inappropriate moment while I was having a nap.
The story took an unexpected turn four months ago, that is, during one early morning in the month of March 2013.
As before, a telephone call came from a Chinese staff of the same persistent company coaxing me to appoint his company to claim the money on my behalf. During that conversation, out of a slip of the tongue, he revealed that the source of the money was associated with insurance which to my mind was not too far-fetched as I had signed up a few insurance policies during my working career.
No response.
Then, I thought I could have used my old identity card number to sign up insurance policies prior to the introduction of the new identity card number. Once with my old identity card number keyed in, the computer screen instantly displayed my name together with the sum of the unclaimed money which was identical with the amount mentioned by the company mentioned earlier. With this authentication of my unclaimed money, I proceeded to identify the source of the money, that is, to identify the relevant insurance company associated with the money unclaimed.
I then telephoned my nephew to give him my policy number to check if there was such an amount of money linked with the insurance policy I signed up with him. He was surprised that I did not cash out the money when my policy matured in the year 2009 as he took for granted that I would have done so without his reminder. Little did he know that I was totally unaware of such a cheque payment. He then asked me to fill in the claim form UMA-7(Pin.1/2007) and to submit it to the insurance company at the Penang branch for processing.
The following morning I rushed to Penang to submit the claim form to the insurance company. After that I sent an email to the Customer Service Department of the insurance company, the contents of which are shown below:
Dear Sir,
It was with much regret that I ought to submit the claim form UMA-7(Pin.1/2007) to your company at the Penang Office, on 20 March, 2013 to claim the money for my insurance maturity cheque.
To be frank, I am very upset and annoyed that I did not receive the insurance maturity cheque by the end of the year 2009 for the following reasons:
1.) Your company had my present address, contact numbers and email address updated in your computer system in the year 2003. I had also updated my personal details and profile details in a form sent out by your company dated 24th May 2003.
My own record shows that for four consecutive years, that is, from the year 2006 to 2009, I had received the annual statements for the policy sent to my present address. As such I see no reason why I could not have received the insurance maturity cheque or any notification letter about the cheque, if it had been sent to me via this very SAME address. I doubt, unless proven otherwise, your company had made any attempt to contact me whence the insurance maturity cheque was unable to reach me, or if the cheque was not banked in into my bank account three months after the issuance of the cheque.
Furthermore, the policy planner for my insurance is my own nephew and his agency up-line is my nephew-in-law. It was due to the close relationship between me and the planner and his up-line that it would never occur to me that such a serious thing like a missing insurance maturity cheque would have happened to me as I always assumed that I was dwelling within the comfort zone so much so that I took for granted that there was no necessity for me to scrutinise or study the details of the policy, including its maturity date, as I had trusted that my policy was handled safely by an agent I trusted most; and I would expect to get the best services from your company with such an ‘established’ reputation.2.) Your company was able to send me a cheque together with an accompanying letter dated 7 December ,2009, to my present address to refund me the excess amount that was deducted from my bank account. Apart from this, I had also received THREE other separate cheques as Survival Benefit, sent to my home address on three separate occasions dated of 19th September 1997, 19th September 2003 and 19th September 2006 respectively. As such I see no reason why your company could not have done the same for the issuance of the Insurance Maturity Cheque.
The only THREE possibilities that I could think of to justify the reason for me not receiving the insurance maturity cheque are of any one of the following:
(a) either the cheque was not sent out,
(b) or it had reached the wrong person,
(c) or it was lost in the mailing process.
3.) I wonder why for almost two years your company could not get somebody to click on the computer system to check whether “ I was still surviving in this world of samsara” before the cheque was ultimately sent to the Public Trustee as unclaimed money,as the record in the computer system would have clearly indicated that I am still holding TWO other policies with your company, namely, the LIVIN’ PAY SCHEME(2072) and the NUTP HEALTH CARE(GS3271).
4.) It is a pity for me, as well as it could be an insult or an embarrassment for your company that I had to be informed of this money unclaimed, time and time again, over the last two years, by a third party bearing the name of a private limited company in Kuala Lumpur which is offering to recover this money on my behalf, on the condition that I have to pay them 20% of the amount entitled to me. All these years I just ignored it as I regarded it as a scam.
5.) As a victim of negligence and the faults of others, I would have to bear the consequence of either the risk of losing the entire amount of the insurance maturity cheque, or the penalty of paying a certain amount of money to the Registrar of the Unclaimed Money as a ‘claim pack’, apart from the interest I have lost on the principal amount over the past few years.
I sincerely hope that your company would:
(a) give me a satisfactory explanation as to how my insurance maturity cheque had ended up as unclaimed money in the Government Treasury,
(b) assist me in the speedy recovery of my long lost money of the Insurance Maturity Cheque,
(c) compensate me monetarily for the interest lost over the years due to the missing cheque.
Hope you would investigate this matter.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Zest Zipper
After two weeks I received a reply from the insurance company, among other things mentioned were:
1. Upon the maturity of my policy on 18/9/2009, a maturity cheque was sent out to me via registered mail per the address on record. However the cheque was returned by the postal department. Subsequently,a notification letter was sent via normal mail. Unfortunately, I did not receive either piece of correspondence, and thus on 26 February,2011, the money was deposited with the Registrar of Unclaimed Moneys at the Jabatan Akauntan Negara.
2. The company is willing to address the lost interest on the maturity payment and it is also working hard to expedite the processing of my refund from the UMA.
True enough, exactly a month after I had submitted my claim form, the unclaimed money was refunded and banked into my bank account and I had also received a separate cheque sent by the insurance company by courier service to pay me on the lost interest on the insurance maturity cheque. All these were made possible due to the concerted efforts of the insurance company and its team members which I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and profound thanks.
However, there are certain issues which seemed not to be addressed by the insurance company, among them are:
1) The insurance maturity cheque which was supposed to be sent to me via registered mail was returned undelivered by the post official to the insurance company without my knowledge as I was the rightful recipient given that the name and address of the recipient remained unchanged throughout the stipulated period. Has the insurance company pursued the matter with Pos Malaysia for clarification?
3) Why didn’t the company take any further action to find out the cause for the failure of the delivery of the maturity cheque given that another cheque that was issued at a later date to refund me the excess premium paid by me was able to reach me on December in the same year?
The moral lesson of this account is to teach us not to take things for granted no matter how trivial the thing may be. I do hope that the exposition would also induce the insurance company concerned, or any other insurance companies for that matter, to reconsider and to upgrade the SOP of its delivery system of issuing the insurance maturity cheques to its clients.
It is never too late or too old to learn a new lesson!
