On Monday, I received a strange letter in the mail. It was addressed to my father, but sent to my home. My father has been dead for twelve years, and he never saw the house we live in now. The letter purports to be a settlement of some sort of $400 annuity. (I’m unclear on the details and don’t have it with me right now.)
Though I’m deeply skeptical that this is anything but a scam, I do intend to follow up in case it’s legitimate. I’ve heard stories of people who have “found” money of this sort. In fact, there’s an entire industry devoted to lost and unclaimed money of all kinds.
In the U.S., the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) is a non-profit organization that assists in “reuniting owners with their property”. NAUPA sponsors a free site called Missing Money, which allows users to search unclaimed property records from participating states. In this context, “property” simply means “stuff” — it doesn’t refer to real estate. Common types of unclaimed property include:
- Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents
- Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends
- Uncashed checks and wages
- Insurance policies, CD’s, trust funds
- Utility deposits, escrow accounts
Unfortunately, the Missing Money database doesn’t include information for Oregon. (It contains records for 40 of the 50 states.) I’m fairly certain that somewhere out there is a bank account that I opened as a small boy. It probably contained $20 in 1978, and has been earning about 1% interest for the past thirty years. I want my $26.96!
For other unclaimed property resources, check out the Federal government’s “Government May Owe You Money Page”, or contact your state’s unclaimed property office. Meanwhile, I plan to call about the strange letter addressed to my father. I expect it to be a scam of some sort, but who knows?
GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve your financial goals.Savings interest rates may be low, but that’s all the more reason to shop for the best rate.Find the highest savings interest rate from Ally Bank, Capital One 360, Everbank, and more.
This article is about Money Hacks, Tools
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.
Discover is a paid advertiser of this site. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
The advent of public online databases have created two kinds of vultures:
– the collections people who buy ancient, written-off debt for pennies on the dollar, then spend a few more pennies mailing out letters to convince people to pay them money to clear off a debt that’s likely long off the credit report
– the abandoned property researchers, who are happy to reunite people with their own property for a hefty percentage of the amount. Like the other vultures, they can make a hefty return-on-investment for letters and postage if they only get a few bites.
Hooray to you for telling people how to find their own property for free!
loading....
It’s probably the lost property thing, but if you were the executor for his estate, it could be an old class-action or something. My dad and his siblings received $1600 for a class action related to my grandmother’s medical care more than 20 years after she died.
loading....
Well I just ran a search for myself in Maryland…nada. Would have been nice to find a financial surprise though.
loading....
It may not be a scam. I got one of those years ago about some sort of pension a railroad owed my grandfather. I passed it on to my mother who called them and they sent her a check. It wasn’t a huge check (a few hundred dollars?), but it wasn’t a scam either.
loading....
I just found $97 in wages from a previous employer, and it is claimed through my State Dept of Treasury, so no fees. Just have to attach a bunch of documents. Cool!
loading....
There sure are a lot of listings on the MissingMoney.com site. Have you seen anything that tells how many people “find” significant amounts of their unclaimed property this way?
loading....
BTW — I doubt it’s a scam, but don’t pay anyone else to get your money for you. The states will give it back to you for free.
And run the national search, not just a state search. Sometimes a company headquartered in another state ends up turning over your property to that state’s unclaimed property department.
loading....
WOW!
I just found where I was owed back wages from an old employer in North Carolina. This just blows my mind. This is too cool.
Thanks JD!
loading....
J.D. – You should go to http://mscfprod2.iservices.state.or.us/dsl/unclaimed_property/search.cfm to see if you have any unclaimed property in Oregon. Hope this helps!
loading....
Cool, just found $50 from an overpaid utility bill. Didn’t cost me anything to claim it. Thanks!
loading....
I found two paychecks from a past employer! Thanks for the tip, JD!
loading....
Thanks! I just found $50
loading....
I actually just had the state I used to work in contact me about “missing property”. The thing that really pisses me off though is that this is wages from an old employer who HAS MY NEW ADDRESS, as I was living here when I quit that job. Annoying. But I too thought it was a scam at first, did some digging and found out it wasn’t. I didn’t mind getting the money I never realized I was missing!
loading....
yes! I love this.
loading....
My in-laws actually just got notice of about $2300 of unclaimed property. It was legit- they deposited it all into savings.
loading....
Oooh I might have something helpful to contribute for once!!
I *just* did a search for this like a month ago, because a friend had found something like $2,000 doing it. Worth a shot, I thought. So, I did myself and all my family…. there was no missing money for ME, but I did find about $400 for my Dad from an apartment deposit he never collected.
…And since you are a fellow Oregonian, I just so happen to know the people for you to check with!
Go here:
http://mscfprod2.iservices.state.or.us/dsl/unclaimed_property/search.cfm
You can search your name, and your father’s, and anyone else you might know. If it turns up anything, there is some paperwork involved – and a notary is needed, if I remember correctly.
Hope that’s helpful!
loading....
The public records search is a great thing to do. I found $150 owed to me. Then I located another $200 of my long-deceased father’s. It took some doing, but I was able to prove I was his heir and the state forked over the cash.
If the sender of the letter asks to be paid for retrieving the alleged settlement for you, it’s obviously a scam. But many of these things are not. A friend’s mom had a private investigator show up saying the mom’s father had died and left her an inheritance. She hadn’t seen the old guy, who was quite a rounder, for decades, and everyone was sure it was a scam. But no. She ended up getting $60,000 — since she was living in poverty, that was a chunk of dough for her!
loading....
another website is unclaimed.org. i found close to $400 with the site from two srouces
loading....
When I was a kid in elementary school, we had one of those savings account programs where you’d bring in a quarter every Monday and they’d put it in an account for you. Forgot all about that until three years ago, when I did a search and found the old account. $103.
Interestingly, once an account is declared abandoned, the bank no longer has to pay interest on it, as far as I know, which is one reason they are eager to get these old accounts off of their books.
loading....
[...] article from Get Rich Slowly today. There was a time one of Grandfathers came to me with a faxed document that showed a [...]
loading....
About 7 years ago I found over $2500.00 in savings accounts in CA that had belonged to my mother who passed away in 1978. They had been turned over to the State. Every State has an unclaimed money/property site, usually on the main State website. You should never pay anyone to try and find money for you, it is easy to do yourself.
Also, when you search, search under your name, your maiden name, and even your parents name, and your mothers maiden name. I have even found items listed under my Grandmothers name (One of the savings accounts, she was listed as a joint owner of the account). Search under every State you or your relative lived at.
If you find money, be prepared to be able to show alot of paperwork proving who you are, and death certificates to show how you are related to deceased relatives when you make a claim. Keep copies of EVERYTHING you send and request a confirmation of delivery when you send items.
loading....
Wow, I hope you find out it’s not a scam. It’s not a ton of money but it’s something. That would be cool to check out the site and find out you can cash in on an insurance policy or an uncle’s safe deposit box. I hope it leads to good things for you!
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
loading....
There is definitely way too much money being sent to state unclaimed asset bureaus. What’s scary is last year I read an article about some non-profit organizations lobbying to have these assets donated to the non-profit organization after a certain period of time. I don’t have anything that I know I overlooked, but I took a more proactive approach to the whole problem of loosing things in the first place. I started using a service called eLifeID (www.eLifeID.com) and made instruction records for all that I have. This way if anything happens to me, my family will know exactly where to find things and have some good instructions to follow.
loading....
Excellent! I recently found a paycheck that I never cashed when I was young and absent-minded. I wondered where I should take it to get the money. I’ll write my state next week (I don’t have the check with me right now).
loading....
The State of Maryland, Unclaimed Property Unit, actually mailed me a notice saying that I had $318 in unclaimed property from a mortgage refinancing that I did some years ago. I would have never thought to check. However, when I read the letter, I was a little concerned that they were requesting my social security number. So I called the office and checked their online website to confirm that this wasn’t some sort of scam to get my SS# and a copy of my driver’s license. Six weeks later, I got the check in the mail.
loading....
Since your blog yesterday – I have been personaly responsible for finding for co-workers and family, over $5000 in unclaimed property. JD, everyone in my office wants to thank you for post yesterday. To bad that I didn’t have any unclaimed property, but oh well.
JL
loading....
I found money this way once. I had a second job for a while to prevent taking on debt for an upcoming expense. I made quite a bit more than I needed for the expense and just happened to forget to come back to pick up my last check. It was for a partial week so it was not much money, but I was still glad to receive it. This reminds me of another virtue of direct deposit.
loading....
I just found $68.13 [probably my last paycheck] from a job I had in high school!
loading....
[...] to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!On Thursday, I shared a web site that helps users find unclaimed property. I hoped some readers might find it useful, but I didn’t expect it to be nearly this [...]
loading....
[...] Get Rich Slowly digs deeper into a letter he got about finding missing money. [...]
loading....
I found an old dividend payment for my in-laws and an old payment for my OH. Not bad going!
loading....
I’ve loved those sites for some time and found monies for family, friends and former employers. You have to acknowledge the stupidity, however, of banks, business or govt and realize why so much money is unclaimed by doing the following. Take a look at the MissingMoney site again. Now, put “Army” or some other company name in the FIRST Name field and “The” in the LAST name field. Now you see why people don’t get their money. Be very thorough and make sure you enter all kinds of variations of your name, putting your last name first and first name last, use unusual spelling, etc. That’s how I found the most money owed!!
loading....
I actually work for UP in a certain state and a tip or two: if you have some time to kill, write into the office and include a SS# — we can do a more thorough search of the system with it. (I know people get antsy about SS#s though.) If you are looking for something specific, be very specific in your request to the UP office. Send copies of checks or other documents (or be sure to write that info in your letter) sometimes checks are not reported with an owner name on it, just the check number. (For reasons unknown.) The NAUPA (naupa.org) website lists each state’s UP webpage and mailing address.
I’ve heard there are some states that actually do charge a fee for this service, though, unfortunately. I think Ohio is one? I might be wrong.
I have a list at work of the names of scammer companies, but usually the letters that people receive are legit in the sense that there is money for you, they just will charge you a fee to tell you where it’s being held. Don’t do it!! I think twice I’ve dealt with a claimant with such a letter that I couldn’t find out where their money was being held (outside of the state’s UP office) by just cruising online or researching with others in my office.
Nice post!
loading....
Any word on if there is anything like this for us Canadians?
loading....
I tried this out too, and managed to find $200 from a title company of a house I purchased in 1994. Thanks for the tip!
loading....
I found some money too, when I tried to claim it the state said it does not belong to me. So I called Foundmoney.com the lady was very good, she told me exactly what to do. As it turns out I did not enter the correct SSN. I thought all was lost until I called foundmoney.com
loading....
I did went through it all and after five months got a check for $14.51 from a state tax return that I never deposited (I guess). So it’s definitely worth it to try.
loading....
This site is not free. I need a totalyy free site. Does anyone know of one?
loading....
Yes if you have a computer and you here about unclaimed property, you do not need a tird party collecting a fee from you. BUT! My friend and I do this for a living and many of the people we locate
are 55-over 90 years old. They don’t have computers. Years ago most states printed out a listing of everyone owed money and you didn’t need a computer. The states don’t do this anymore. Why? Because they want to keep as much of the UP money as they can. They brag about how they paid out $24,000,000 in UP last year. What they fail to mention is that $36,000,000 more UP money went into there coffers.I’m not greedy, I live in a senior center and do free checks for other residents and all there residents. I find them alot of money and never charge them a penny.
loading....
Need to know if Hipolito Correa Sir born close to 1917 left some money in banks in Puerto Rico
loading....
dad died 12-8-06 he was in the United States Army He stated before he died he had an life insurance policy for me and my sibling that we never found His Bday is 3-28-1944 born in Fitzgerald Ga!!! Please help @ tanja5683_@icloud.com
loading....