Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Finance the way in which the value of a policy is calculated by the NTMA in the event that the proceeds have been wrongly transferred to the NTMA and the beneficiary comes to claim their policy. [4342/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The NTMA has no role in calculating the value of the unclaimed policy, the proceeds of which are transferred to the dormant accounts fund.

Under the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003, where a claim is made in respect of such a policy the insurance undertaking concerned establishes the identity of the policyholder, gives a written notice to the NTMA of the net encashment value of the unclaimed policy and sends a copy of this notice to the policyholder. On receipt of the notified amount from the NTMA, the insurance undertaking settles with the policyholder.

For the purposes of the claim procedure the policyholder includes all persons with a legitimate claim on the policy and the net encashment value is the amount payable to the policyholder by the insurance undertaking, including interest, under the terms of the policy at the time when the policy holder makes a claim.

Under the Act, the policy is treated as unclaimed if, in the case of a fixed term policy, the specified term has expired, if an amount would be payable if the policyholder were to make a claim and if the insurance undertaking has received no communication from the policyholder for a period of at least five years. In the case of a policy which does not have a specified term, these conditions are met only when a period of 15 years has elapsed without any communication from the policyholder. The Act also sets out procedures for notification of the holders of dormant policies before the transfer is to be made. The amount to be transferred to the fund is the net encashment value of the unclaimed policies at the time of transfer as established by the insurance undertaking.