There are many reasons you might have unclaimed funds (abandoned accounts, uncashed checks, misspelled names, incorrect addresses, misplaced inheritance and trusts, etc), and your state is required to hold your property until you claim it.
They will not seek you out, and most people are completely unaware they may have lost funds or property being held by the state.
Every state has an official (.gov) website where you can check whether you have unclaimed property and submit a claim. Just search ‘[my state] unclaimed property’.
e: make sure you go to the official state website; I just noticed some state search top results aren’t the official (.gov) website.
e2: also, check every state you’ve lived in. Moving state is one of the major reasons this happens, and your unclaimed funds will not move to a new state with you.
e3: if you find unclaimed funds, please comment! I’m fascinated to know, no matter how large or small.
Hey thanks. I just made $2.86! And my mom is owed $1.44!
I got $380. Not life-changing, but nice anyhow.
I found my friend is owed $438
I got about $75 back
I’ve never had unclaimed funds, but I have been the person who submits funds that have been unclaimed to the state. I work at a law firm that handles a lot of settlements, and sometimes, people are issued a large portion of the settlement while we wrap up a few other things on the case. Once those are taken care of, I reach out to our client to give them whatever funds remain.
But sometimes, I can’t find that person no matter how hard I search. Sometimes, our client disagrees with the additional amount that they are receiving and refuses to cash their check. After a certain number of years, and after every possible attempt to give our client their money has been made, I have it sent to the state.
Helped my dad through the process and he got like 41 dollars from an old business tax over charge. Not much but that’s dinner money!
Usually this can happen when you are owed money by an institution (bank, insurance, stocks, etc) and you either dont claim it, dont get the check, forget about it, or it happens outside of your knowledge (e.g. grandparents set up an account). In the US, you can usually check with your state’s Comptroller’s office. For example, NY has unclaimed funds under the office of the New York state comptroller
I’d reccomend going directly to the state .gov website and looking there or making sure you have the state website if following a link. They will let you search by name for unclaimed accounts, and then after choosing the one you want to claim, it will ask for ssn, dob and name, etc. If they can verify that information, you get a check in the mail. Ive gotten a few hundred from old insurance that probably settled some account after I’d switched.
Yeah, make sure it’s .gov. Don’t go through a middle man that does the same thing while charging a fee.
1k for family from a couple claims.
Awesome. Thank you for this post.
Nice! Glad it was helpful.
Checked this in my state a few years ago, ended up getting like 50 bucks back. Took a while, I forgot about it by the time the check got here. Seemed like the state treasure was happy to have his signature prominently slapped on there.
My wife got some postal mail about unclaimed funds that looked bogus. After several repeats, we found out that it was due to her uncle passing away intestate.
My wife’s already deceased father and him had mingled their finances. But another cousin had found out first and had already moved on cutting us out.
Fixing it has taken over a decade, but the estate finally closed last month. Our share total was around $350k. The thieving cousin probably got away with double that. But hey, a free windfall for retirement.
Unfortunately, I’m out of work so we’re living off of that money now.
I’m glad you finally got it sorted. That’s a hellish process, and I hope you can at least relax now.
Well I still need to find a job. ASAP.
I’ve reclaimed over 1k by this, it’s insane what some companies just give up on trying to return to you
I just checked the 3 states i have lived in and found something from an old isp. Doesnt look like it will be much tho.
I’ve heard ISP stories several times. That’s really interesting.
Canada has something similar! Look up “unclaimed funds” or “biens non réclamés” and your province/territory!
I’ve known about this for a few years, and periodically check for myself and family. So far zilch… but I keep hoping!
I got $9.31 from the ISP I had in college! My sister-in-law had $82 from the same ISP. Seems to be a pattern.
Australia has it too
If you find unclaimed funds, please comment! I’m fascinated to know, no matter how large or small.
I’ve had 18 shares of Morgan Stanley in unclaimed funds for a while. They want the shares certificate to claim it… which doesn’t make sense cause if I still had the certificate, I’d just sell them. But anyway, your post encouraged me to get in touch with MS investor relations just now to see if I can do anything about it. It would be almost $2,500 if it works.
I’m crossing my fingers for you!
I looked and found 6 unclaimed funds for my brother and my parents in the state I’m originally from. They were all under $100. Probably won’t know exact $ until they make a claim. The types of funds include: insurance premium refunds, customer overpayments from banks, a refund from an ISP, and a trust liquidation.
I found about 8K for my mom a few years ago doing that.
