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.
I found about 8K for my mom a few years ago doing that.
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
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
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.
That’s fascinating, I assumed it would be the default business to business debt, where most companies would basically hold onto the money until they’re asked for it, and just make damn sure they’ve accounted for it
I’m not a money guy, I just remember hearing some project managers talk about it and thought it was an interesting thing I’ve never considered, so there might be more to it
Can you tell me a bit about the legality of it? Is it just a matter of balancing your books to avoid getting in trouble, or is it different for individuals than businesses, or am I missing some piece of context and jumped to the wrong conclusion?
Just in general the motivation for you to do it that way for my own edification, I had no idea this kind of process existed
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.
They obviously know exactly who I am and where I live. I’ve had this account (and this house*) for like 25 years, and they’ve never had an issue charging me monthly fees.
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.
Feel free to crosspost to !AskUSA@discuss.online
Hey thanks. I just made $2.86! And my mom is owed $1.44!
I only need about tree fiddy
I got $380. Not life-changing, but nice anyhow.
I found my friend is owed $438
I got about $75 back
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.
Yes this happened to me once , I had to create an account to pay taxes on something and I found out I had like $300 on something the state didnt pay me because I moved.
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.
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!
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 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.
