The federal government’s MoneySmart website can help locate unclaimed money, which rose to a record $677 million this year, $2.7 million of which belongs to New England and North West residents.

In mid-November the Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched a campaign to encourage people to visit the site and do their own searches, with 2.5 million searches completed by more than 303,000 people in the campaign’s first week.

Based on the number of people who printed and emailed records during that week, it seems 22,610 people found money. There are no records of where in Australia these people were from.

Unclaimed funds are there for a variety of reasons including bank accounts that haven’t been used for more than seven years, people moving without leaving forwarding addresses or beneficiaries not claiming money from deceased estates.

Visit the website, www.moneysmart.gov.au  and click on the “unclaimed money” link.