{"id":37801,"date":"2010-07-26T04:00:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=37801"},"modified":"2023-09-23T11:18:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T17:18:20","slug":"how-to-find-unclaimed-money-and-unclaimed-property-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/how-to-find-unclaimed-money-and-unclaimed-property-online\/","title":{"rendered":"How to find unclaimed money (and unclaimed property)"},"content":{"rendered":"
July 21st was the fifteenth anniversary of my father’s death<\/a>. He died of cancer at age 49, just ten days shy of his fiftieth birthday.<\/p>\n When Dad died, he left behind a meager estate. Aside from the custom box<\/a> business (which, admittedly, was not “meager”), he managed to leave each family member with $5,000 in life insurance proceeds, and that’s about it. His personal finance skills had never been great, and that included estate planning.<\/p>\n More than ten years after his death, however, I was contacted by a company out of Florida. “We have your annuity,” they told me.<\/p>\n “What annuity?” I asked. And they explained that my father had opened an account for me in 1977, when I was just eight years old. He had made a single<\/i> payment into the account, and then forgotten about it. For the past 30+ years, the account has simply been earning interest. The balance is now $438.79.<\/p>\n Now that I know about this account, I can cash it out by providing a copy of my father’s death certificate. But before the company tracked me down, this was a classic case of unclaimed money.<\/p>\n In most (all?) states, banks, utilities, insurance companies, and investment companies \u2014 along with many other businesses \u2014 are required to surrender inactive accounts to the state. These accounts are known as “lost”, “abandoned”, or “unclaimed” property. They contain unclaimed money.<\/p>\n Unclaimed property can include things like:<\/p>\n When this property has been legally “abandoned”, it’s turned over to the government, which acts as a custodian until the rightful owners steps forth to claim it. Until then, most states use the proceeds (and the interest earned on the unclaimed money) to help fund operations.<\/p>\n If you can prove that you’re the rightful owner of a particular abandoned asset, you can reclaim it. For free.<\/p>\n I’ve written before about using MissingMoney.com<\/a> to find unclaimed property<\/b><\/a>. The latest issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser<\/i> has a great article describing how to find forgotten assets<\/a>. From the story:<\/p>\n It’s easier than ever to find forgotten property thanks to the increasing number of databases. In most cases, it makes sense to do the sleuthing yourself rather than pay a finder firm to do it for you<\/a>. If you locate funds that are yours, the fiduciary that holds them will provide specific instructions on how to claim them. You’ll need proof of your identity. If the property belonged to a deceased relative or friend, you’ll also have to prove that you are the executor of the estate or the rightful heir.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here are the methods Consumer Reports<\/i> recommends for finding and reclaiming lost property (along with a few tools I found on my own):<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. government also has an official government may owe you money<\/b><\/a> page where you can check for unclaimed property, mortgage refunds, and more. Also, my buddy Jeff Rose<\/a> recommends<\/a> visiting Benefits.gov<\/b><\/a> to see if you qualify for any government benefits. (DisasterAssistance.gov<\/a> lets you see if you qualify for disaster-relief programs.)<\/p>\n The Money Adviser<\/i> article provides more information about working with each of these sources. And, of course, the individual websites have detailed instructions for locating unclaimed money and other assets.<\/p>\n In addition to those national searches, each state<\/i> has a department for unclaimed money and unclaimed property. I found a page that linked to all of these different resources, but the site was woefully out of date. So, I spent a warm Sunday afternoon in my non-air-conditioned office tracking down the current locations of each state’s unclaimed property office. (And I’ve included some info for Canadians, too.) Please let me know if you spot any errors or broken links!<\/i><\/p>\nWhat is Unclaimed Money?<\/h3>\n
\n
How to Find Unclaimed Money<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Search for Unclaimed Money by State<\/h3>\n