Is there hidden treasure you can find to help you have a happy 2012? Alok Dhanda gives some tips on where you should start looking.

TONIGHT, we’ll be saying farewell to what was, for many, a rather gloomy 2011 and welcoming in a bright and hopeful 2012.

With the arrival of each new year, we vow to start afresh and achieve something new in the 12 months that lie ahead. For many, it’s eating habits, fitness regimes and the search for a new job that rank highly on the customary New Year’s resolution list, but you should also be thinking about your finances.

By assessing your finances now, you can plan ahead for that summer holiday, home extension or new car you’ve been craving.

Even if you don’t have big spends in the pipeline, you also need to consider the unexpected – a baby or a wedding, for example. Of course, there are situations that we’d rather not think about, such as illness or redundancy, but we must also accommodate these possibilities in our financial plans.

So where do you start? Well, to look ahead we must take a leaf out of Scrooge’s book and revisit years gone by. Have a spring clean and search through drawers and cupboards for important, potentially lucrative documents. It’s estimated that there is more than £40m in unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, reserved for almost three-quarters of a million winners across the UK – some dating back 50 years. In one case, a woman is owed £100,000. This highlights the importance of checking old documents.

It’s also worth seeking out ‘lost’ accounts that you may have opened years ago. If you held an account with a building society or insurer, and they subsequently demutualised to become listed on the stock exchange, you could be due a windfall.

For example, customers have until 2016 to claim proceeds from Standard Life; if they meet the qualification criteria.

You might also want to raid your attic for valuable items; remember the scene in Only Fools and Horses when Del and Rodney found a stopwatch in their lock-up, which transformed them into millionaires? Admittedly, it’s unlikely that there will be millions of pounds hiding in your attic but you could be sitting on a tidy sum – think about getting family heirlooms or childhood items like stamp collections and toys valued to see what they are worth. If they’ve been gathering dust for some time, then maybe now is the time to part with them for some cash.

It’s a sad fact that thousands of people die each year without filling out a will (known as dying intestate) and if beneficiaries can’t be found, the sum goes to the Treasury. If you know of a relative who has died in the last 30 years and may have left behind unclaimed assets – you could try to track these down. Visit www. bonavacantia.gov.uk for guidance.

Next, you need to assess whether you’re missing out on valuable extras to top up your income. According to website Unbiased.co.uk, more than £8.5bn per year goes unclaimed by those entitled to child benefit, child tax credits, working tax credits and pension credits. It’s important to check what you are eligible to claim – in the first instance, visit direct.gov.uk for guidance as well as hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits. It’s worth noting that tax credit payments can be backdated by up to three months.

Once you’ve clawed back some cash and implemented measures to save some money, you need to think about what you will do with these funds. Consider making an appointment with an independent financial adviser (IFA) who will undertake a thorough financial health check – essentially, a full review of your personal finances.

An IFA offers sound, unbiased advice based on your personal circumstances. The adviser gathers numerous pieces of information about you – for example they’ll need to know about your income, debts and savings as well as your short, medium and long-term goals and your attitude towards investment risk.

The IFA can then search the whole of the marketplace and advise on the best products and strategies that you could adopt to safeguard and potentially increase your investments, pension pot or child’s inheritance.

It might not be your top priority as the clock strikes midnight tonight – but a financial check up should be a New Year’s resolution that makes your list come tomorrow morning.

:: Alok Dhanda runs Dhanda Financial, 52 Dean Street, Newcastle, NE1 1PG, telephone 0191 255 8960, email alok@dhandafinancial.com  or visit www.dhandafinancial.com