Dormant accounts: Given the long-term nature of savings, it is quite normal to have years of inactivity on savings accounts. Accounts are often open-ended and the accountholders are saving for an undefined period for an unknown purpose.

Nevertheless, there appears to be a lot of money lying untouched on deposit for many years and some accounts have effectively been abandoned. In response to an inquiry from the Department of Finance earlier this year, banks, building societies and the Post Office Savings Bank estimated £140 million (€178 million) was lying in dormant accounts.

New legislation has been introduced to deal with this phenomenon. It defines a dormant account as being any account with no customer-initiated transactions in the previous 15 years.

The Dormant Accounts Act 2001 has been finalised and will become effective shortly. The legislation's purpose is to provide for, among other things, a scheme to transfer dormant funds to the care of the State, while guaranteeing a right of reclaim of those funds.

From April 1st next, banks will be required to make "best efforts" to contact accountholders, in many cases by writing to that person at the last known address. They must also bring the scheme to the public's attention, using advertisements in national daily newspapers. A customer-initiated transaction will be required to reactivate an account.

Where the account balance is below €100 (£78.70), or where the institution holds a "no correspondence" instruction, an individual notification need not be sent.

If you are in the habit of ignoring correspondence from financial institutions, it might be worth changing your ways next year.

Each institution must follow up on any contact, and identify and communicate with as many dormant customers as possible by March 31st, 2003.

The notification process is expected to lead to many reactivations of accounts, after which they will no longer have dormancy status. Only accounts that have been dormant for 15 years or more and are verified as having being abandoned by customers will be handed over to the State.

If the owners of accounts that are dormant at the end of March next do not reclaim their money by the end of March 2003, it will be transferred to a Dormant Accounts Fund.

This is to be established and managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. However, the beneficial owner of the money will have a guaranteed right of reclaim to their property at any time.

The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs will appoint members to a board whose remit will be to oversee a scheme for the payment of surplus dormant account funds, based on guidelines given by the minister.

This addresses the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee, in its DIRT inquiry report, that dormant funds be "used for specific purposes of societal and community benefit".

Surplus monies will be used to fund programmes or projects designed to assist those who are educationally, physically, socially or economically disadvantaged.

Prize bonds: Some £635,000 of prize-bond money is sitting in a big unclaimed pile at the moment, waiting for its rightful owners. That's 3,970 winning bonds, including four prizes of £15,000. One of those winning bonds was purchased in 1957 and drawn in 1996.

Every week, 1,750 prizes are won by prize-bond holders but a tiny portion of these prizes remains unclaimed each year. Prizes range from £50 to £100,000 and the total monthly pay-out is £520,000 plus.

So how is it that prizes are unclaimed? With the smaller amounts of £50 and £100, the Prize Bond Company sends out a cheque. If the address is wrong, the cheque is never cashed.

For prizes of £1,000 or more, the company tries to contact the person before sending out the cheque to confirm they will receive the prize. If they cannot get a response from the person, naturally they do not post the cheque.

After six months, these prizes are classified as unclaimed prizes. The company keeps an up-to-date record of any bonds on an "unclaimed list" and, once verified, the prizes can be claimed at any time. You can check your bond numbers off the list of winners on the website www.prizebonds.ie or by calling 1850 671000.

Prize bonds can be purchased in An Post outlets, through the website, by phone or by post. They are also available from banks and stockbrokers. When you purchase bonds, you are issued with a certificate that lists your bond numbers. These numbers are entered into the weekly and monthly draws. The winning bond numbers are published on aertel, prizebonds.ie or the list is available by calling the freephone number.

The Prize Bond Company makes every effort to contact winners and the most common reason for prizes remaining unclaimed is bondholders not notifying the company of a change of address. Even if a cheque belonging to you has gone astray, you can still confirm your number as a winner and claim prize money.

Prize bonds have been around for more than 40 years and they are still a very popular investment. The company sold £55 million of prize bonds last year.

So if you haven't set eyes on those certificates for years, it might be worth having a look at them. Dig them out of the dresser drawer and check the numbers against the list of unclaimed prizes.

If you don't have access to the internet and would prefer not to call, you can write to the company asking it to check your numbers at; Prize Bond Company Ltd, Fexco Centre, Killorglin, Co Kerry.