Newshub can reveal nearly $2 million has been transferred to the Government over the past decade from those who have died without a will.
The largest amount, $1.028 million, was transferred to the Government's coffers in 2017, while a more modest $13,390 was handed over in 2018. In the last two years, there has been no money passed on.
It's what's called bona vacantia, latin for 'ownerless goods'. This is when property or other assets are transferred to the Crown because it has no other owner, meaning there was no will left or relative to make a legitimate claim.
The funds are deposited to Treasury as bona vacantia under section 77 of the Administration Act 1969. The money is passed on when a deceased person fails to leave a will or a valid will doesn't make it clear where their assets should go.
Although the Crown becomes the owner of 'ownerless property' by default, anyone can apply to the Treasury Legal Team to ask the Crown to do something with the property, such as transferring it to someone who should be the owner.
In 2011 and 2012, no bona vacantia money was handed over to the Government. But in 2013, $132,336 was transferred, followed by $19,197 in 2014 and $2637 in 2015. Nothing was handed over in 2016.
Henry Stokes, Group General Counsel at Perpetual Guardian, is an expert in wills and what happens to money when a person dies without specifying who their assets should go to. He says roughly 50 percent of New Zealanders don't have a will.
"Almost always in the cases that I've had direct experience in, we've been able to find legitimate claimants, or at least we've been able to ascertain who they would be," he told Newshub.
"If they're in New Zealand, then usually people are very easy to find in our relatively small country. Where you find that someone does exist but they moved overseas years ago and no one's had any contact with them or heard of them or if they've married and changed names, that becomes a nightmare and really difficult to track."
How does money end up with the Government?
There are two types of money Treasury, the Government's economic and financial policy department, is sometimes asked to take action on.
Bona vacantia money is different to 'unclaimed money', which Treasury handles after it has been held for a certain length of time in financial institutions such as banks or insurance companies, with no identifiable owner.
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"You've got unclaimed money, and that's the one that you tend to see on that list that you can go onto the Government website and you can get a list of unclaimed money," says Stokes.
The latest list, signed off by Treasury Secretary Dr Caralee McLiesh, can be found here.
"Then you get the other side which is the bona vacantia, which is after death, when no one has possibly been able to be found that would have a legitimate claim on that money," says Stokes.
"Surprisingly, the Government is actually quite resistant to receiving money from estates and the reason behind that is quite simple: even if it does receive it and subsequently someone comes out of the woodwork that can show they've got a legitimate claim, Treasury will then work with them to have the money come back out from Government to that legitimate claimant.
"That's a really difficult process even for the Government itself, so they will often resist having money come in unless you can absolutely show that you've done every single thing possible to find a legitimate claimant and you've simply not been able to do so."
Once the money is transferred to the Government, it doesn't just sit there. It becomes Government funds. But it isn't allocated in a particular way.
Rather, it is held as public money, in a Crown Bank Account, until such time as someone makes a valid claim to the funds. For example, if a person the deceased may reasonably have been expected to provide for subsequently comes forward, then the Crown may decide to pay that estate money to that person.
"We often see disputes in estates and for a number of different reasons," says Stokes.
"It can be where you have estates where a child is left out of a will altogether, to simply where there are disputes between family members when it comes to personal items over who gets what or someone saying effectively 'I should have a greater share than anyone else'.
"In terms of a dispute, it can range from someone simply voicing that they're very unhappy right up to actually taking formal proceedings through the court, and you've got quite a big spectrum in between those two things.
"We definitely see quite a bit of it. I'd say, in our modern world, that it has become more prevalent than in the past, and it does also vary between people who voice their dispute on their own behalf and those that also actually go and engage representation to voice their dispute on their behalf."
Stokes says ultimately, it can all be avoided if you take the time to make a will.
"I think that the best answer to that is getting as much information out there and getting a level of understanding about the difficulties that occur and what does happen, if people actually do die without a will, and the struggle that means for their family and their loved ones, that they then leave behind."
