The Tribune

A local firm has formed an international partnership to trace and recover unclaimed foreign assets belonging to Bahamas residents and companies.

KRyS Global, the boutique recovery and fraud investigation speacialist, has teamed with AssetMine Global to reunite Bahamians with their unclaimed property located in overseas jurisdictions.

In a statement, KRyS Global explained that ‘unclaimed property’ was the term given to financial assets that have not been collected by their owners after a legally defined period of time.

These assets could include dormant bank accounts, tax refunds, uncashed checks, insurance and pension policies, stocks and brokerage accounts, and inheritances.

Many Bahamas residents will have already received correspondence regarding assets that have been identified as belonging to them, and they are encouraged to respond to begin the claims process.

“We have begun our first phase of contacting those who we believe to be owners of unclaimed assets that have been identified by AssetMine,” said Edmund Rahming, managing director of KRyS Global’s Bahamas office.

“Our team uses a multi-stage research process into publicly available databases across the world, which include cross-references at every step to eliminate non-owners.

“We are contacting only those whom we consider likely to be the rightful or legal asset owner.”

Because governments frequently report these claims as having a ‘not stated’ values, the total amount of unclaimed assets belonging to Bahamas residents is currently unknown.

But KRyS Global said AssetMine’s team has evidence the figures are growing. “The unclaimed assets that do actually have a known value for Bahamas residents and companies is in the millions of US dollars, so we can only imagine what the ‘not stated’ values are,” said Darren Jack of AssetMine, who is also chairman of a task force for the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organisation.

“Our experience in other countries indicates that a significant number of these unclaimed assets could have significant value.”

Amounts that have not been disclosed remain hidden until the legal owner has initiated a claim, due to the regulations of the state or country that it is being held in. These amounts can only be confirmed when the claims process has begun.

“We are excited about this initiative and the value it can bring to Bahamian residents, companies and the government”, said Mr Rahming, “We are assisting clients in locating assets that in most cases they never knew existed.”

Assets can go missing for a number of reasons: Change of address/lost mail; incorrect spelling of contact information being recorded; wills not being left/beneficiary details not being up to date; or checks not being deposited into the owner’s account.