Equiniti's ProSearch reaches £1bn mark in unclaimed assets resolution

Share services and fintech business Equiniti Group announced on Monday that its specialist asset re-unification business ProSearch had reached the £1bn mark in unclaimed assets resolution.

The FTSE 250 company said around 900,000 investors had used the service, which had reclaimed investments with an average value of more than £1,000.

It said in some cases the amount reclaimed was much higher, with the largest find valued at more than £0.6m and some unclaimed portfolios valued “in the millions”.

Equiniti sadi there were a number of reasons cash and share entitlements may not have been claimed, such as a shareholder failing to notify a share registrar of a change of address, or beneficiaries or executors of an estate not being aware of the holding.

“We work with share registrars, banks and building societies to reunite investors and shareholders with their unclaimed assets,” said ProSearch managing director Duncan Stevens.

“Often the original investor, or their estate, is unaware they have money owed to them and, while typically it may just be a few hundred pounds, it is also common for it to be tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Stevens said that, despite the effort that went into tracing and reuniting people, there was still a “significant number” of investments that remained unclaimed.