Beneficiary tracing services for funds, insurers and estates.
xverified traces the people South African institutions owe money to and cannot find: unclaimed retirement benefits, Section 37C death benefits, lapsed policies, dormant accounts, unclaimed dividends and the heirs of deceased estates. Every beneficiary comes back identity-verified, with an audit packet your trustees, actuary and regulator can sign off.
- Pricing basis
- Paid on success
- Coverage
- All nine provinces
- Sources
- 14 authoritative registers
- Data residency
- Azure South Africa North
One service, five kinds of unclaimed money.
Beneficiary tracing starts with a list of people an institution has lost touch with and ends with a verified person, a confirmed bank account and the evidence to pay them. The list looks different in each sector, so each has its own page:
- Unclaimed pension and provident fund benefits, including members on the FSCA Section 13 register and unclaimed benefit fund transfers.
- Section 37C death benefits, where trustees must identify and trace the dependants and nominees of a deceased member before they may distribute.
- Long-term insurance policies with beneficiaries nominated on paper years ago.
- Dormant bank accounts and unclaimed dividends held by registrars.
- Heirs of deceased estates for executors and trust administrators.
If you only need current contact details for people you can already identify, see contact details tracing, which is priced per record.
A four-stage pipeline that an actuary, regulator and beneficiary can all defend.
- 01
Ingest
Encrypted upload of your legacy records — member files, policy ledgers, dormant balances, nomination forms — in whatever shape they are in. We map the fields, mask ID numbers in every log, and confirm the scope in the engagement letter before anything is matched.SFTP · CSV · Excel · database extracts · scanned bundles - 02
Resolve
Probabilistic identity resolution against the 14 sources listed below. A record with a misspelt surname, a maiden name and a partial ID still resolves to one person, with a confidence score and the sources that agree. Deceased members are expanded into a family lineage from Home Affairs records so dependants can be found.14 authoritative sources · configurable confidence threshold - 03
Verify
Each candidate is confirmed before it is reported: Home Affairs identity verification, a reviewer queue for low-confidence matches, and field tracing where digital sources run out. Tracers collect signed consent, certified identity documents and bank-detail forms in person.DHA verification · human review · field tracing in all provinces - 04
Release
A claim pack per beneficiary goes to your administrator. Payment runs on your rails — xverified never touches beneficiary money. The journal of every match, review and document is immutable, so the trail stands up years later.Claim pack · immutable journal · payment on your rails
Named registers, not a black box.
Competitors describe their method in general terms. We name the registers, because trustees are entitled to know what a match was tested against.
Identity and family
- Department of Home Affairs — HANIS identity verification
- Department of Home Affairs — birth, marriage and death records (family lineage)
- Deceased estate notices
Funds and regulators
- FSCA retirement fund registers
- FSCA Section 13 unclaimed benefits register
- Unclaimed benefit fund records
Estates and companies
- Master of the High Court estate registers
- CIPC company and director records
- Trust registers
Financial footprints
- Credit bureau header data (TransUnion)
- PASA dormant account indicators
- JSE share registrars
- Contact and address enrichment data
- Employer and payroll footprints
When the digital trail ends, a person goes.
Many legacy members and most dependants of deceased members have no credit footprint, no registered address and no active phone number. Digital tracing alone will not find them. xverified runs physical tracing through regional tracers in all nine provinces, briefed from the resolved family lineage so they arrive knowing who they are looking for.
In the field, the tracer confirms identity against a certified copy of the ID document, obtains the beneficiary’s written consent, completes the fund’s bank-details and claim forms, and photographs the supporting documents into the case. Where a claimant is a minor or a guardian acts for them, the tracer collects the guardianship evidence the trustees will need.
An audit packet per beneficiary.
- Resolved identity
- Full names, ID number (verified with Home Affairs), date of birth and, for deceased members, the date of death and the family lineage.
- Match evidence
- Every source consulted, what it returned, the confidence score and the reviewer's decision where one was made.
- Contact and banking
- Current address, phone number and a bank account confirmed in the beneficiary's name.
- Signed documents
- Consent form, certified ID copy, the fund's claim and bank-details forms, guardianship or marriage evidence where relevant.
- Journal
- An immutable, time-stamped record of each step, exportable for the trustees, the actuary and the FSCA.
- Exceptions
- Records we could not resolve, with the reason, so the fund can decide on transfer to an unclaimed benefit fund or further action.
Contract first, then data.
We start with a scoped sample sweep under a short engagement letter, typically 5 000 dormant records, so you see the recovery rate before you commit to a full programme. The letter sets the scope, the processing terms under POPIA, the verification standard a beneficiary must meet and the fee. Records are transferred only once it is signed.
Beneficiary tracing, answered
What is beneficiary tracing?
Beneficiary tracing is the process of finding, identifying and verifying the people who are owed money by a pension fund, insurer, bank, estate or share registrar but have lost touch with it. In South Africa it covers unclaimed retirement benefits, unpaid death benefits under Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, lapsed policies, dormant accounts, unclaimed dividends and heirs of deceased estates.
How do I check for unclaimed benefits in my name?
Use the FSCA's free Unclaimed Benefits Search on fsca.co.za with your ID number, and contact the fund or administrator it names. xverified works for institutions, not individuals, but our guide on checking for unclaimed benefits walks you through the public tools step by step.
How long does a trace take?
A scoped sample sweep of about 5 000 records typically returns its first verified beneficiaries within two to three weeks. Full programmes run in monthly batches, with each batch reported as it completes. Field tracing for members with no digital footprint takes longer and is scheduled per region.
What does the fund or administrator receive?
A claim pack per beneficiary: the resolved identity, the sources matched and their confidence, the family lineage where a member is deceased, signed consent and bank-detail forms, certified documents collected in the field, and an immutable journal of every step. Trustees can approve the payment from the pack alone.
How is beneficiary tracing priced?
On success. You pay a fee only for beneficiaries we trace and verify to the standard set in the engagement letter, with a cap per beneficiary on high-value claims. There is no upfront fee for a tracing programme. Contact-details-only tracing is priced per positive record.
Is this lawful under POPIA?
Yes. A fund or administrator tracing the people it owes money to processes personal information to perform its own legal obligation, which is a lawful basis under POPIA. We process only the fields needed for the trace, under a written processing agreement, inside South Africa, and we never use your records to enrich anything else.
Do you trace beneficiaries in every province?
Yes. Digital tracing is national by nature. Field tracing is run through regional tracers in all nine provinces, including rural areas where many legacy members and dependants live.
Find your
unclaimed.
We start with a scoped sample sweep under a short engagement letter, typically 5 000 dormant records, so you see the recovery rate before you commit to a full programme. You pay only for beneficiaries we trace and verify. See how pricing works.