Axa insurance reveals dead claims

Axa Insurance has said up to €500,000 in refunds on motor and home insurance policies remains unclaimed, after it issued cheques made payable to dead people.

Refunds in the form of cheques bearing the words "The Late" before the client's name were stamped "account payee only" and "not negotiable".

A spokesman for the company said a total of €1.7 million was issued to clients who were due the money because of Axa's former policy of not making refunds when the overpayment amounted to less than €25.

Axa told the financial services regulator that the policy was because of the cost of processing the work.

Axa also said it did not pursue clients who owed them less than €25.

The Irish subsidiary of the €70-billion-a-year French giant said the overcharging related to a 13-year period to December 2004.

More than 130,000 customers were due sums of up to €25 on their home and motor insurance.

Axa wrote to the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (Ifsra) in December 2004 and informed it of the practice after it carried out a review of its fees and charges.

The process was sparked when the regulator ordered all financial institutions to carry out such examinations in the wake of revelations that AIB had overcharged foreign exchange customers by €25 million.

However Axa has now said that up to 30 per cent of the refunds it sought to make remain unclaimed.

In one case seen by The Irish Times, the letter from Axa was addressed to "the Late (client's name)" and related to premium changes made to a car insurance policy in 1994.

In this case the client passed away in January 1996 and Axa was informed.

The company sent the letter and cheque nine years later in February 2005, but as the former client's home had been sold it took a further 13 months to eventually arrive at the deceased clients' heirs.

Axa said it accepted that as the cheque was stamped "not negotiable" and "account payee only" it would have been extremely difficult to cash, even by administrators of the deceased estate.

This would be particularly the case where a client's demise took place several years ago as it is very probable that their affairs would have been wound up and assets distributed, with bank accounts closed.

A company spokesman insisted the company did not profit from the overcharging as it was balanced by the policy of not pursuing clients for amount less than €25.

Unclaimed money would ultimately be donated to charity, he insisted.

Last year the company said it had identified and written to all the affected clients. However the difficulty which arose was "computer generated" it said last week.