There are many reasons you might have unclaimed funds (abandoned accounts, uncashed checks, misspelled names, incorrect addresses, 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 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.
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.
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.
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 found about 8K for my mom a few years ago doing that.
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.
Hey thanks. I just made $2.86! And my mom is owed $1.44!
I got $380. Not life-changing, but nice anyhow.
I only need about tree fiddy
If you find unclaimed funds, please comment! I’m fascinated to know, no matter how large or small.
The US government also holds a secret bank account in your name, and you can access it by writing diagonally and not paying your child support. See !insanepeoplefacebook@lemmy.world for more.
What OP is talking about is actually a real thing. Sovcit stuff, not so much.
Gold fringe!
e: seriously, though, this isn’t weird sovcit bullshit. It’s an actual thing.
I accept your comment for value.
Im guessing you never watched cable tv in the US between 1993-2005. There was a guy who ran a whole business connecting people with this.
I can still see that question mark suit
You’d best not be disparaging JG Wentworth (877-CASH-NOW!)! (Also he’s a structured settlement guy, not unclaimed funds.)
Actually, the guy I was thinking of was the free money from the government guy
Those bastards demanding my money instead of demanding the company try again to send it to me.
I found out about this because of this letter from Amazon – it was the first letter I saw from them, and will apparently be the last. No idea why this amount is different than any other amount that just goes into my account, but whatever.
I got contacted by a bunch of law firms offering to help me reclaim a bunch of money in the form of abandoned stock shares. How they ended up in the custody of the state is somewhat unknown to me, though I have a theory (which I won’t share). It was a life-changing amount. I wouldn’t be leading the life that I do today if that cash hadn’t dug me out of a whole years ago.
There are laws requiring abandoned property to be turned over to the owner’s state of residence after a set amount of time, which is how it ends up in the state’s unclaimed property holdings. There are no laws requiring the owner to be notified their property is there, though – you have to request it.
If it’s a substantial amount, lawyers have an incentive to seek you out, but for most people, it won’t be worth an outsider’s effort. It’s easy enough to claim, anyhow, so most people can just file the claim themselves.
Glad you found a life-changing amount! That’s awesome.
Thank you! I was on the edge of having to radically change my life by moving. I would have never met one of my closest friends or my partner. Life really is about luck sometimes.
Australia has it too
Due to scheduled maintenance, the unclaimed money search will be unavailable from Saturday 18 January 8:00 am to Sunday 19 January 6:00 pm (AEDT). We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Bish better have my money
