How to find unclaimed money (and unclaimed property)
July 21st was the fifteenth anniversary of my father’s death. He died of cancer at age 49, just ten days shy of his fiftieth birthday.
When Dad died, he left behind a meager estate. Aside from the custom box 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.
More than ten years after his death, however, I was contacted by a company out of Florida. “We have your annuity,” they told me.
“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 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.
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.
What is Unclaimed Money?
In most (all?) states, banks, utilities, insurance companies, and investment companies — along with many other businesses — are required to surrender inactive accounts to the state. These accounts are known as “lost”, “abandoned”, or “unclaimed” property. They contain unclaimed money.
Unclaimed property can include things like:
- Forgotten savings accounts
- Uncashed paychecks
- Unclaimed security deposits
- Unused gift certificates (not in all states, obviously)
- The contents of a safe deposit box
- Investments, including stocks and mutual funds
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.
If you can prove that you’re the rightful owner of a particular abandoned asset, you can reclaim it. For free.
Important: You should almost never pay to regain your unclaimed money and property. Governments and other agencies provide this information for free, and only require that you provide documentation that the unclaimed money belongs to you. You don’t have to pay a fee. There are companies out there that try to act as an intermediary, but you do not have to use these. You can find unclaimed money yourself for free.
How to Find Unclaimed Money
I’ve written before about using MissingMoney.com to find unclaimed property. The latest issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser has a great article describing how to find forgotten assets. From the story:
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. 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.
Here are the methods Consumer Reports recommends for finding and reclaiming lost property (along with a few tools I found on my own):
- For property held by states, use MissingMoney.com. (Or just scroll down this page to the list I’ve put together that links to each state’s unclaimed property department.
- To track down an abandoned defined-benefit pension, check out the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp missing participant database. If the plan is still active, you’ll need to read this PDF on finding a lost pension. (The Money Adviser article has more info on this subject.)
- To find an unclaimed 401(k) plan, visit the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. You may also want to read the afore-mentioned PDF on finding a lost pension from the PBGC.
- For missing life-insurance proceeds, try MissingMoney.com. The American Council of Life Insurers has some tips for finding a missing policy.
- If you think the IRS owes you money, head over to its website and use the Where’s My Refund? tool.
The U.S. government also has an official government may owe you money page where you can check for unclaimed property, mortgage refunds, and more. Also, my buddy Jeff Rose recommends visiting Benefits.gov to see if you qualify for any government benefits. (DisasterAssistance.gov lets you see if you qualify for disaster-relief programs.)
The Money Adviser 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.
Search for Unclaimed Money by State
In addition to those national searches, each state 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 haven’t been able to find any other unclaimed money in my name other than the annuity my father opened when I was eight. That’s fine. After all, the odds are very slim that there’s anything out there that I’ve forgotten about. But it doesn’t hurt to take a few moments out of your day to see if there’s a savings account out there that your parents opened when you were a young squirt — one that’s been quietly earning interest in your name for thirty years!
Have you ever tracked down some forgotten assets? How did it work? Can you provide some tips based on your experience? Are there other tools and resources that should be added to this list?
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There are 85 comments to "How to find unclaimed money (and unclaimed property)".
I tracked down a couple hundred dollars a few year back for my wife. Her parents had opened a savings account when she was a kid and forgotten about it. A quick search of the internet, a simple form and a check was sent our way.
We used missing money a few years back and found a reimbursement from graduate school that had gotten lost in the mail or something. Like PMT said, a simple form and a check was sent.
“he managed to leave each family member with $5,000 in life insurance proceeds, and that’s about it” Did you expect your father to leave his family with much more? It sounds like you were perhaps disappointed you didn’t get more than the $5,000.
I hope my parents leave nothing. My father & mother worked & saved so that they could retire comfortably, not lavishly. At the same time, they brought up four kids & clothed & fed us, gave us some extras (a vacation at the beach, a pool in the yard for summertime fun), and were there when we needed them. I don’t feel I should get anything or am entitled to anything more than that. If there is anything left for my siblings & I after they are gone, that’s a bonus. Otherwise, I hope they enjoy every bit of their money, or what they can do with it (travel especially), until that time.
lostAnnfound (#3) wrote: Did you expect your father to leave his family with much more?
That’s a great question, actually. I’m not sure what I expected. My relationship with my father was strained over the last few years of his life, and as a result, some of my memories have been colored in a negative way. Does that make sense?
The reality is he couldn’t leave more, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which were his poor financial skills. Now that I’ve learned more about money, I’m aware of the options he had, if he’d planned, but this isn’t stuff he knew, so I oughtn’t hold it against him, right?
Besides, what did I do with the $5,000 he left me? I squandered it. I took it and bought a high-end computer, one that was worthless just a couple of years later. If he’d left me $10,000 or $20,000, I would have squandered that, too. In fact, I might have ended up even further in debt.
Anyhow, that’s not really the point of this story. 🙂
I got one am grateful you shared your story. I am currently working on tracking down a joint account I had with my Father when I was sixteen and got my first real job he took me to the bank and told me whatever I put into the account he would match it. Well I put almost my whole paycheck in for a while, and he did match it, plus some! Anyway long story short, I stopped putting my check in, he and I had a falling out so I assumed he closed it… But I’ve found some papers that make me think he may have kept putting money in for who knows how long. He and I didn’t talk for close to ten years, but the last two years of his life I was the only one who would take him in and take care of him. Also money was the only way my Dad knew how to show affection, so I say if my dad left anything behind I deserve to have the benefit of whatever it is.
My grandmother left some unclaimed money with the state of New York and the state of New Jersey. One was a small amount in a savings account and the other was a utility deposit. Unfortunately, my father would have had to provide his birth certificate, her marriage certificate because she had remarried and a death certificate for her and for his brother in order to claim these small amounts. By the time you added up the costs of ordering those 4 documents in order to prove that he was a legitimate heir, it wasn’t worth it.
I haven’t found any for myself, but did find an unclaimed savings account of my grandmother’s and a refund check for my aunt. So it’s definitely worth a few minutes to check it out.
I really need to do this for my grandma’s estate. I knew about one resource to find missing money (checking by state), but you provided a wealth of info that I need to check out.
#4 – true J.D., that is not the point of the story. Didn’t mean to go off topic. 🙂
Anyway, unfortunately (or fortunately?) no unclaimed monies for me searching by state. Thanks for providing other means of searching.
Does an account have to have been inactive for 30 years before it will turn up on these databases?
On the other side of this equation – if you own a business and have property that belongs to another party, sometimes you are required to file that as unclaimed property with the state.
Examples:
1)a customer overpays an invoice and therefore has a credit on account
2)an employee leaves and you can’t track them down for their final paycheck
My father left a fairly good sized estate of half a million dollars. His will specified that the gathering and distribution of assets, after his death, would be handled by Comerica bank. It was their incompetence that led to me being contacted in 2005 by Keane, a company who connects lost assets to the people who own them.
I was suspicious to get a letter stating they found a $10,000 asset which was mine. I called them and they said that the asset belonged to my deceased father, if they collected it for me they would charge 35%, and if I asked them exactly what it was they would tell me if I was right or wrong. That is, if I found it they would tell me and I could collect it myself without paying the 35%.
I was grateful that they found me and let me know about this asset, but I felt that $3,500 was too much of a cut for them. I respected the work that they did to find me, but I am an only child and the money was my fathers, so there wasn’t any complicated succession issue (they tried to justify their fee on the basis that they had lawyers on staff who would handle the legal documents). I offered to compromise on a fee of $2,000, which they refused.
So, I tried to find the asset myself. I went through all the resources JD has listed in this post. I wrote to each state. Since I was writing and mailing the letters anyway I requested the states search for assets of me and my mother, as well as my father. I looked in the pension databases, social security, the treasury, etc. None of these avenues produced the asset.
Next I asked myself “What kind of investment would my dad have that could be work $10,000?”. My dad died about a 5 years before, if he made the investment 5 years before he died he would have put in roughly $5,000 (assuming a 7% return). That’s a relatively small investment, and I knew he had been dabbling with direct purchase stock plans. I started calling the major stock transfer companies who deal with direct purchase plans. When I got to the American Stock Transfer & Trust Company they said they did have an asset of my fathers, 202 shares of Yum stock, valued at $49 a share (it has since split).
I called Keane back and asked if the asset 202 shares of Yum stock. They confirmed it was. I was quite happy to have saved $3,500 in fees.
I was also annoyed that Comerica missed this asset, I looked in the estate taxes that they filed and saw that they did list the stock in the taxes so they knew about it, they just didn’t take ownership of it and transfer it to me as they should have. In retrospect I should have gone through each line of the estate tax and made sure each asset was transferred into the estate and then to me.
Incidentally, my dad bought 200 shares of Yum in 1998 for about $1,600. The additional 2 shares were from dividend reinvesting. I have chosen to keep the shares, today after dividends and a stock split I have 412 shares, worth $17,000. The $3,500 I saved in 2005 is worth almost $6,000 today. In addition, keeping the shares meant I didn’t have to pay capital gains tax on them when I acquired them (or their cash equivalent), I will have to pay capital gains tax when I sell them. And now I think about my dad every time I eat at Taco Bell (a Yum restaurant).
I should probably do this. It can’t hurt to look!
I was thinking about comment #3: I don’t think the deceased *owes* anyone anything. I think the point is that JD’s dad didn’t know how to invest.
My father was unemployed for two years but fortunately had savings to fall back on (not to mention zero debt and a paid-for house). However, as his funds began to dwindle, my husband checked unclaimed property to see if he had any money owed to him. There was none owed to him, but my mother (deceased) and her father (also deceased, and my mother was an only child) together had about 8K in unclaimed funds. We helped him with the paperwork, and that stash of money ran out right as he received his first paycheck from his new job.
It never hurts to keep an eye on unclaimed property, because you just never know!
Years ago, I found a booklet for a savings account that my parents had opened in my name and forgotten about. When I went to the bank to see if I could get the money, they said that they closed any unused accounts after a certain number of years. As far as I know, my parents were never notified of this, since they were quite surprised when I told them about it.(And they hadn’t moved!)It couldn’t have been more than ten years, since I was only 18 at the time. They just kept the money. It wasn’t much, but still….I have never opened savings accounts for my own kids because I was afraid the same thing would happen, and I didn’t feel like donating my money to the bank. That must not be standard practice if other people are finding old savings accounts!
A note: banks don’t keep the money. It is turned over to the state. All banks have to tell you the inactive date and when funds will be turned over the state. They will also send you multiple letters announcing the funds are about to go the state and what you can do. Don’t just blame the banks, it is a two way street of information.
I checked for unclaimed money years ago and just forgot about it. Even though I wasn’t expecting any money, and didn’t expect to find anything out there, I recently checked again. This time I found a $30 refund check for a hard drive I had bought which had somehow ended up in the state’s possession even though it was addressed to my correct mailing address.
It’s not much, but it was a cool find. Also, it’s worth checking every once in a while.
Hey JD, if you don’t mind saying, what was the amount of your father’s original payment into the annuity?
I used MissingMoney.com and received a $72 AT&T refund from 16 years ago just a couple of weeks ago!
Thanks for this. I had forgotten about this MissingMoney.com, and just checked it to see if I had anything owed to me. I found a $36 deposit I made a few years back that the state had a record for. I just printed out my claims form and will be sending it out today.
Thanks JD!
I recently helped my friend collect $500 in unclaimed money from an insurance claim. Super easy process!
I checked into this a few years ago. Didn’t find anything for me, but found something for my brother-in-law. I told them about it, but they didn’t follow up on it. I don’t know why. I also found several lapsed policies for my aunt. I told her about it and she said she would follow up on it (she had gotten ill, which is why they had lapsed).
re: old bank accounts. My parents opened a passbook savings account for all of us in the 1970s when we were kids. Both my sister and I had closed ours out long ago. My brother kept his open, but didn’t do anything with it. The bank got taken over by Bank One, then Chase. Chase started collecting inactive fees. My brother didn’t open his mail. The local branch finally called when the fees had eaten the entire account.
@Suzy (#17)
I don’t mind saying how much my father’s original payment into the annuity was, but the truth is I don’t know! None of the paperwork I’ve received has that info. I’ll have to ask the company when I talk with them next.
I do know that the annuity was church-related. At that time, my family attended the Mormon church (which is the church my mother was raised in). The annuity was started on the date of my baptism, and is called a “missionary fund”, so was meant to be cashed in when I turned 18 and went on my Mormon mission. (Which I never did, but I won’t go into that since I don’t deal with religion here at GRS.)
It was a fascinating piece of family history. I only wish my mother remembered anything about it…
Hi JD,
For Canadians, they can check to see if they or their loved ones have any dormant accounts at the Bank of Canada: http://ucbswww.bank-banque-canada.ca/
We did this for my father (he died 20 years ago. I’m sorry for your loss as well) and although there was no money left in any account, it relieves the idea that there could have been.
It’s also very common for parents to set up their child’s first bank accounts when they are quite young and often children forget about these first accounts.
So, everyone should check to see if they have money sitting in the accounts. You are still entitled to that money, although you may be charged a fee for dormant accounts.
Someting to definitely look into, because you never know… 🙂
Karen
Wow, I just found a for sure amount that is my Father In laws. I am going to call him today and offer 50% commission to tell him!! Or maybe I’ll tell my hubby to tell him for 25%. Just kidding!! Thanks this was great info.
I just found a small refund for me resulting from a class action lawsuit with my phone company from eight years ago.
I remember when it was filed. Now I can claim my check for what will likely be about $10.
I did find some stuff out there for my in-laws. They move quite often, so they have claims across several states.
Hmph, nothing! I’ve checked this before, using everyone’s name I can think of, but nothing comes up.
I do have a big “what might have been” story, though. My paternal grandfather bought land on English Bay in Vancouver, in the 1920s, I believe. But he was killed while working on a train at a young age (26), and my grandma couldn’t afford the taxes so she just let the land go. Now that land is prime real estate and would have been worth a fortune! Makes me cry, it does.
This reminded me to get my husband to claim his last paycheck from a part-time job he had 5 years ago…he has known about it for a year but hasn’t done the paperwork necessary since it’s “only” about $50. I want it anyway since it is $50, lol. 🙂
I really didn’t expect to find anything for me, but found $4 ! Heh. And about $100 for my brother.
Both of which relate to 10 shares of Dow Stock that we both won as part of our scholarships.
When we checked a few years ago there was $1,000 and we also found money for numerous relatives. When searching we used all variations of our names including just first initials. Since I had married name, maiden name, and hyphenated name I checked them all including common mispellings.
And, thank you for mentioning about the locators that call and try and get a big cut for notifying you. They tried this when my mother passed away. (Small cut reasonable but too big and it’s just taking advantage.)
I grew up on a farm in Virginia that had electric service provided by a small rural cooperative. To establish an account when we moved there, my parents had to buy three “shares” in the co-op. Long after my folks passed and I moved to Oregon, I stumbled across the co-op’s monthly newsletter online and in that particular issue my dad’s name was on a list of members having unclaimed funds. A phone call and a faxed document was all it took to redeem those forgotten shares (initially $300, grew to $1100 – but that’s after nearly fifty years).
Oh wow, thanks JD! I found $97!! I think I can purchase your book now =)
Thanks for the information for Canada and Québec. I just found 2,69 $ for my sister… 😉
A few years ago I recovered about $400 in unclaimed property that was turned over to the State of Illinois from a final paycheck from a summer job that I had years ago.
I am an attorney for a nationwide engineering company that has been in business for 40+ years, so I also checked to see if any unclaimed property owed to my company had been turned over. I ended up collecting over $100,000+ in unclaimed money owed to my company.
As far as search tips, for people to run searches, it is usually best just to do your last name and then first initial of your first name. This will give you more results, and the spelling of the first name may be different in their system. I prefer to run the searches on the indiviudal state sites (as opposed to missingmoney.com), as the state sites sometimes have more information for you.
Thank you for this–thanks to these resources I just found around 100.00–an unexpected “snowflake” to throw at the debt.
In my earlier post, I mentioned that an old account of mine was closed and the bank kept the money. I know this sounds unlikely and wrong, but I am just going by what the bank told me when I went to try to get the money. When I asked what happened to the money when they closed out my account, the teller said “It goes back to the bank”. Exact words. She was probably wrong, but I was very young and naive and didn’t think to question it.
I was sure I didn’t have any unclaimed money, but clicked on the link as a lark. Found $20 a mortgage company owed me. (A bit irritating, since they have my current address.) Thanks!
JD-
I read the title and thought to myself “JD’s lost it” 🙂
Turns out this is one of the best resources I’ve read on the subject. Good stuff =)
Back in the 1980’s I worked for an oil company trying to track down former employees with unclaimed money in their stock option plan. Approximately 80% of the money went unclaimed as we no longer had accurate mailing addresses and didn’t have the benefit of the internet at that time. If you are managing an estate, I suggest you contact the HR department of former employers.
My MIL worked as the safety deposit box clerk at a bank. They had many unpaid, unclaimed and essentially abandoned boxes, even in her very small town.
The unclaimed money & safety deposit box items were turned over to the state.
When I first saw a story on this years ago, I checked my mother’s name and found some dividends that were unclaimed. She’d passed away, but my father was able to send in her death certificate and get the $. I looked up my youngest daughter’s name several years ago and discovered a utility deposit that she’d never received. She was out of work at the time so the $50 came in handy.
Found two in my home state under my maiden name! One says it under $100 and one says its over $100. Will print out form this evening. Thanks JD!
Never pay a fee to recover unclaimed monies! And ladies, remember to search under your maiden name, too.
My first full-time job was handling unclaimed accounts for a Savings and Loan (remember those?). At the time, the S&L was required to send letters to the customers and report the accounts to the State on the 5th, 6th and 7th year of inactivity before turning over the money to the State. My best recovery was a $15,000 account.
Just found nearly $100 in my mother’s name and address! I gave her a call about it and I’ll be giving the claims form to her the next time I see her. Thanks JD!
Our family was recently contacted by Keane, regarding a sum of money left unclaimed by my deceased grandparents from the demutualization that created Principal Financial Group in 2001. Keane is asking for 20% of the proceeds as a finders fee. We’re trying to decide whether to try to claim the money on our own or to accept Keane’s offer. Our initial investigations are showing that getting the money on our own won’t be trivial and will involve my grandparents’ wills and probate.
Does anybody have experience with Keane, in particular claiming proceeds from a demutualization as an heir?
Although a year after my father died, I checked unclaimed property, I checked again today after reading this and discovered two accounts that are “over $100.” One is the refund of an auto insurance premium that appears to have been sent to the wrong address, and the other is a CD that I didn’t know he had. The CD is a lesson in making sure you find out about ALL the accounts your parents have before possible dementia sets in.
In working on my late parent’s estate, I found unclaimed property for both of my late parents. My state will not tell you any information about the value, just the name of the entity where the property is from.
In talking with the Probate Court, I discovered that unclaimed property from Utility Company fee rebates for a personal estate usually will be as small a few cents. Not really worth the hassle of reopening the estate, finding all the required documentation, filing forms etc.. While on principle I would like to receive this rebate, at $10 per form, just obtaining the required documentation from the town clerk would cost more than the likely value.
My other parent’s estate had a different type of property involving stock. The frustrating part is the state has a minimum waiting period of 90 days before they even begin to review a claim. Over 100 days later I am still waiting to learn the fate of the claim. The rest of the estate cannot be settled until the claim is completed. JD your readers should know the wheels of the unclaimed property bureaucracy grind very slowly.
Thanks for this post, on a whim I checked my name in the states that I have lived in and found I’m owed $9.80 from stock dividends.
Just to pass the time, I clicked on the links provided and searched for all the names of folks in my family. I found $133 refund owed to my husband, a $100 deposit refund owed to my daughter, several unclaimed amounts for my stepdaughter, and the whopper of all is I found over $1000 for ME! Apparently a small place I used to work for set up some type of pension fund for the employees, and I did not know I was enrolled! I’m sending in the paperwork in the morning! 🙂
As for banks taking back the money, more than likely (like others have mentioned) they actually were charging an inactivity fee and the account went back to 0.
Our credit union did that to our minor daughters’ accounts back in the day of paper statements every quarter (even though they weren’t supposed to) In the three months between statements the fees were enough to nearly close the accounts. After pointing out the obvious (and all I got was the opportunity to vent), I set up automatic transfers from our account to make sure it didn’t happen again.
For “lostAnnfound”… if you think about it, it actually dishonors your parents if you leave their legacy laying fallow. After my father died, I could have fought for my “rights” to his estate… but, let it go to the heirs of his second wife. On the other hand, I vigorously sought and received some of the property he had left for my brother and me.
It’s not always a clear cut call, the issues of money or property from a loved one. I would rather honor their memory by examining an issue from every side, then do what is honorable. A loved one’s desires to bless you can, in fact, extend beyond their years here on earth.
I’m my grandmother’s power of attorney. And I recently found her low 6-digits of money in lost stock. We were actually contacted by the bank that was overseeing the stock. The company stock that was orginally bought (in the 1960s by my grandfather) was sold and the stock was just sitting there gaining interest for many years.
After several rounds of paper work and getting things notarized and paying about $1,200 in processing fees, we got the money last summer. (My fiance is a lawyer and throughly background checked everything so we knew it was legitimate. So I do not recommend sending money to anyone that sends you a letter in the mail.) Since my grandmother has Alzheimer’s and is in a assisted living facility, this felt like a God-send.
My fiance has also researched lost money for his company and found over $77,000 in lost fees that he got back from several states. So the links work also for companies, not just individuals.
Great article! Lots of information.
I would like to know which banks actually return the funds? I’ll research the links and see.
My past experience involved signing up for an account and depositing money and then I missed a step or two, and the bank was able to have fees and gobble up my funds. This happened on a few occassions, with different banks.
These days I am more organized and your articles help keep me straight up.
Thanks!
Thanks to this site I see I’m owed what I’m told is over $500 that was held in escrow from a house I sold 8yrs ago. Don’t know why they couldn’t find me since they knew my new address. Won’t know the exact amount until I send in the claim form.
Thanks for this post! Just found out that I’m owed some money from an old lease that I left about 8 years ago. Awesome!
I found missing money not one – but two times. We had moved from NJ to Ohio and I discovered that the state of NJ was holding my husband’s pension fund from part time teaching (that we had forgotten)- over a thousand dollars. Several years later, I checked the missing money website again, and found money from a final paycheck that he had never received (and we never knew about) from a college he taught at. I would suggest that anyone who has changed their name or moved between states, check the missing money websites for every state they’ve lived in with any name they may have had. It could be worth a lot of $$$! Thanks for a useful and informative post.
I received a letter in the mail a couple months ago from the state about an account at Memphis Area Teachers Credit Union. MATCU had found and turned over a joint savings account (my first!… of two) that I’d started with my Dad to save up for a new bicycle when I first started working at 14. I’m 25 Now and although the interest and amount wasn’t too substantial, it did help someone who now lives on $1300/mo after taxes with little savings. I did all the necessary proof of identity paperwork and got a check 2 weeks later for $450! It was certainly a welcome surprise.
You Rock JD!!! I typed in my husbands name just now and he was owed money from a company that he worked for years ago. We’re going to have to jump through a few hoops to get it, but hey, it’s money!!!! WooHoo!
I started a new web site for Canadian unclaimed money: http://www.LostCash.ca. It uses all the data from the Bank of Canada but with a much better interface for doing in-depth searches!
If those unclaimed money sites are for real, how do I know which ones are legit? I personally would like to check and see if I or any of my family have a need to go there. Can you provide the legit sites.
i have to comment about unclaimed funds and paying a finder to recieve these funds. First of all, most but not all of the time, indivuduals who have unclaimed funds do NOT check websites to find out, or other methods that a finder has access to. Yes it is NO secret that you can claim unclaimed funds free. But because most americans are so caught up in these difficult times, they will not……so i applaude these companies for helping americans get money that the state or county or even goverment make NO attemept to refund these funds, and you are complaining about saving 10% or 15% or whatever the percentage is. Give me a break. Most americans would more then happy to take 60 to 70% of money they never knew about in the first place. You most work for a local county or state or even goverment level. Go away you penny smart and dollar foolish individual!!!!!!!!!! Maybe the county, state or Goverment levels should do a better job of finding these individuals or heirs to get the funds back to the rightful owners….but they wont…..would you try to find them if your state was making a DAMN GOOD INTEREST RATE ON MONEY THAT IS NOT EVEN THERES….WHAT A JOKE….AND WHEN THE RETURN IT…..SHOCKER….THERE IS NO INTEREST FOR THE INDIVIDUAL……THEY PUT PEOPLE IN THE MAFIA AWAY FOR DOING THAT TYPE OF BUSINESS….ALMOST 100% POSITIVE OF THAT!!!!!
AMERICA AND AMERICANS THESE THINGS HAVE TO STOP!!!!!!!
What about IRA’s? Where do you search for those? I had a company call me and say they found my deceased father’s IRA and they would send the paperwork to redeem it for a 25% fee. This does not sound right.
The Co op have written to me telling me there is a widows pension policy in my father’s name…the problem is he passed away in 2009 snd a solicitor was the executor of his will. As my name was on the death certificate the co op say they will make a cheque ouy to me, now my problem is they won’t tell me how much it is and I will have to pay a solicitor to sort it and I don’t want to be out of pocket
Something to remember-all states do not have all names listed online. NY now only lists back to 1985, NJ back to 1989 and PA to 1975. Good to ask the state for a complete search. If you have an uncommon last name, check for that last name for relatives. Also check for businesses, clubs, religious places, charities, etc.
#11 Katrina showed an unusually high degree of ability and perseverance in tracking down lost assets. Most people don’t have that kind if tenaciousness or skill.
I think an important point this article does not cover is that there are many accounts held by government agencies that don’t report them to the state and so will not show up in the state’s search results nor will they show up when searching missingmoney.com.
As for not paying people who have the ability and resources to find these account and the people entitled to them, the general attitude is that people should not be compensated for all the work they do in the research.
How about considering this? In Katrina’s case I agree that a 35% fee is outrageous. But, in the greater number of cases would you rather get 100% of nothing or 35% of something that could be a lot of something?
One other point I would make about people getting paid to find assets and their owners was touched on by post #59.
Many of these organizations and government agencies holding unclaimed funds make one attempt to notify owners via mail and to the last known address. They are too short on resources to do any followup searches to find owners so the funds sit unclaimed.
Now for the real motivation for government agencies to not work too hard to find the owners of these funds.
In many cases, after a defined time period, these funds become the property of the agency holding them. That doesn’t give these agencies any incentive to make a sustained effort to find people who are owned these funds.
Almost no one knocking “finders” who earn a fee for doing work the government agencies can’t or won’t do ever bothers to talk about the disincentive for owners to be found.
This whole business of does a “finder” legitimately earn a fee is much more complicated and less one sided than this article proposes.
Don’t forget to search for unclaimed property being held by COUNTIES also. That money is not turned over to the states, so you won’t find it on state unclaimed websites.
The Utah site is now https://www.mine.utah.gov/UP_Search.asp
Wow….Such a great information to find Unclaimed property!!! I was looking for the same information from many days.
Thank you!
I like this article, thanks a lot.
Going through old jackets and jeans pockets for clothes you haven’t worn in a long time is worth doing. I found $100 in my jacket pocket that must have been there for about 3 years I completely forgot about. I’m always looking for more ways to earn money so thanks, appreciate the tips.
Hi I need help to find out if my father Albert Jonkers have any funds but he is deceased
My father passed away 10years ago. I looked up and found something from a Met Life Policy. Not a lot of money but it was my fathers.
Here is my issue. I told my older brothers and asked then to inquire. They refused and they also won’t sign off for me to claim myself. They feel i. not worth their time since they are well to do. The state is NY. Is there any way I can by myself collect this policy without them
I wanted to add to the “no fees” stated in the article. This is absolutely not true. The State of Texas will charge you a percentage of the amount they “found” and have. There is no getting around it. Now, it’s not 35%, it’s about 7%, but that’s still crappy considering it is your money in the first place.
Second, if they have it long enough, they will keep it, claiming you were never found.
Third, banks never turn the money over, they just have inactivity fees today, and will drain that account until it is empty. You won’t recover money from them unless it is gigantic. Lost many an account to a bank in my travels for inactivity. They even try to send you a bill for the last fee when there isn’t enough left to cover it!
My father died 28 years ago hi was working on mine and my mother never claim my father’s death benefits.
I want to know if we can claim now.
I spoke with a man named jd about recovering the money that they auctioned my house for and I’m not sure how to get back n touch with him or if this is even the correct company. All I know is his name was j.d. if u can help please email me. Thanks,
Tasha Jones
A finder located me in May regarding property in NV that my Dad owned. The property was sold for taxes with an 8400.00 surplus. The land was in a trust, Dad as trustee, me as manager. He died in 1993, my Mom in 2001. In 2011 the trust papers were destroyed when pipes burst in my house while I was out of town. In 2001 I inherited the proceeds from sale of their California home which was in the trust, I have affidavits from my brother & from my ex sister & brother in law, all stating they knew of the trust. Nevada will not release the funds to me without proof of the trust, which I cannot produce. I’m a former marine living on less than $600.00 a month so I can’t afford an attorney. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can claim this money. It is lawfully mine yet they refuse to accept my parents death certificates & the affidavits. I don’t known how to dissolve the trust. I appreciate any help you could give me. Thank You
Hi Mike,
Sorry for your loss and current situation. While we can’t offer legal advice, this does sound like an interesting case for a law clinic or law school to tackle. I would certainly check any low-cost legal clinics in Nevada first and then just for fun, see if there are any real estate law professors at your largest university (with a law school) and pitch them on the idea of taking on your case for free. Here are the legal clinics advertised on a site that encourages Nevada lawyers to take on pro bono cases:
http://onepromisenevada.org/get-involved/take-a-case/
Recurring Pro Bono Clinics
(Las Vegas) Foreclosure Ask-A-Lawyer Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month 9:00 a.m. — 12:00 Noon Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Ave., Downtown, Las Vegas Click here to view the flyer. Sponsored by Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada
(Reno) Family Education Clinic Every Wednesday 9:00 AM — 11 AM — Protection Orders 11:30 AM — 1:00 PM — Family Law Education Clinic at Washoe Legal Services — 299 South Arlington Ave., Reno, NV 89501 ***Pre-Registration required. To pre-register, call 775.329.2727 Sponsored by Washoe Legal Services
(Las Vegas) Landlord/Tenant Ask-A-Lawyer, Every Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 Noon and 1:00 p.m. — 3:00 p.m. Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Ave., Downtown, Las Vegas Click here for details about this program. Sponsored by Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada
(Reno) Self Help Forms Completion Clinic — 2nd Wednesday of each month, 4:00 pm — 6:00 pm
Second Judicial District Court, 75 Court Street, Room 116, Reno, NV
Sponsored by Nevada Legal Services
(Elko) Self Help Forms Completion Clinic, Last Wednesday of Each Month — 2:30 pm — 4:30 pm
Elko County Public Library, 720 Court Street, Elko, NV 89801
Sponsored by Nevada Legal Services
Every Thursday 2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. Clark County Family Law Court, 601 N. Pecos Rd., Las Vegas Click here for details about this program held at the Family Law Court.
(Reno) Self-Help Forms Clinic Every Friday 10:00 AM — 12:00 PM at Washoe Legal Services located at 299 South Arlington Ave., Reno, NV 89501 ***Pre-Registration required. To pre-register, call 775.329.2727 Sponsored by Washoe Legal Services
(Las Vegas) Veterans Ask-A-Lawyer Program — Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada staff attorneys and pro Bono attorneys will provide free 15 minute consultations to veterans in all areas of law. Consultations will be offered from 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm at Community Resource and Referral Center (CCRC) located at 916 West Owens Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89106 on the following dates:
Register by phone at (702) 791-9077 or in person. For further information, visit http://www.lacsn.org.
I appreciate your input but I neglected to say that I am a resident of Oklahoma & don’t have financial resources to come to Nevada. Do you think the Veterans site could help me by phone consultation? Again, thanks for helping me.
Hi Mike —
Thank you for clarifying. I would surely try the Veterans site, yes. If I can find Oklahoma resources too, I will post here.
For Mike Elmore. All “trusts” have to be filed (recorded) in which ever county your dad was living in. You can get a copy for a few dollars. Good luck
I live in the UK and I have a old share certificate for a MA company which was bought out some years ago. I have tried the MA site and missingmoney.com without success. Any suggestions?
If you have unclaimed money or property then it really can help to know how to get a hold of it. However, I particularly like that the article brings up some of the places where this unclaimed money can come from. That way people know where to look in order to find out whether or not they have anything unclaimed. https://vanalytics.com/our-solutions/
Question: I have received 3 letters just this week saying I am due money from a liability insurance policy on a corporation that is now inactive. But when I do a search online, no “properties” show up…how do I find this money from this inactive corporation without paying an intermediary?
hello i have an issue. my grandfather (my mothers dad) died well over 19 years and left alot of money to my mother and he sister (my aunt). it was installments. my mother died 3 years ago and i was contacted through my father that there was over 5000 unclamied money that was owed to my mother from my grandfather when he died. she didnt claim it when she was alive. he told me he couldnt collect because they were well divorced over 10 years and she had remarried. he told me to see if i could get it. i have copy of my birth certificate but she remarried and her last name is different from the one on the claim. i can get her death certificate easy since im her child. but the problem is i was told that her new husband at the time of death was eligable for the money first. if he declined then it could go to me if he gave permission for me too. is this right? also my father told me he brought it up to my brother about it and my brother didnt want any part of it. he is also well managed in money anyhow. im usually not about the money but it could help me alot. im a single mom working full time but would help alot. thanks