PERSONAL FINANCE

How to Find the Money You Didn’t Even Know You Were Missing

States are holding around $70 billion in unclaimed assets — you many be one of those with money waiting to be claimed

It’s estimated that one in seven people have unclaimed property languishing in accounts being held by state treasurers, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA).

Missing money — waiting to be found

Billions of dollars are waiting to be claimed in the form of forgotten dividend checks, utility deposits, refunds, uncashed payroll checks, credit balance on over payment, inactive stocks, rebates, security deposits, checking and savings accounts, unclaimed safe deposit boxes, estate proceeds and more.

The average value of these claims is around $2,080, according to the president of NAUPA, John Murante. Last year, he said, over $4 billion in property was returned to rightful owners.

So how do these assets go unclaimed, and why does any of it end up in the hands of the government?

A few common scenarios include:

• Taxpayers who are owed IRS refunds move without updating their address.
• Unclaimed pensions become a source of unclaimed funds when a firm closes its doors without providing immediate information on the administration of its pensions.
• Bank failures have created pools of unclaimed money.
• A renter may forget about a security or utility deposit provided years ago when they first moved in — or they fail to leave a forwarding address when they left.

Businesses holding unclaimed property are legally required to try search for the owner. If they’re unsuccessful or if the owner doesn’t collect the property after a period of time — usually three to five years — then the assets are turned over to the state.

When properties are officially designated as abandoned or unclaimed, the state assumes responsibility for it. This process is called escheatment, meaning the state assumes ownership until the legitimate owner comes forward to claim it.

According to Investopedia, most government agencies are forbidden to contact asset owners by phone. This is because of the proliferation of government impersonators who try to defraud the owners.

Where to begin your search for missing money

If you suspect you or a loved one may be owed some funds here is where to start. And, just for fun, you may want to check out these sites because maybe there is a long forgotten refund that’s due to you!

The sites below are legitimate, and they’re maintained by participating state officials. And, these are free to use. You won’t have to pay for the return of any funds owed to you.

MissingMoney.com: The website is endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators and the National Association of State Treasurers with the purpose of “facilitating the return of unclaimed money to rightful owners.”

MissingMoney.com compiles records from participating states — to date, 39 states and the District of Columbia share data on the website.

Using this multi-state database to search for your funds is simple. Just enter your name, city and state and you’re on your way.

If your name appears you’ll see the following message:

“If you reasonably believe you have a right to claim properties listed below (you live(d) at the address provided or did business with the Reporting Business, for example), click the CLAIM button next to each property to add it to your claim. To claim properties with an INFO button, hover your cursor over the INFO button and follow the instructions.”

From there, you’ll walk through a simple, straight-forward process. But, you must be armed with the required information — such as social security numbers or death date (if you’re inheriting money from a deceased individual).

If your claim is legitimate and accepted, you’ll receive a check within weeks.

Other websites to help you search for unclaimed properties:

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/unclaimed-assets.html: Here, users can check to see if unclaimed funds are being held by the federal government.

https://webapps.dol.gov/wow/ This site helps workers recover back wages owed by their employers. They can search to see if unpaid money is held in their name. If so, they can file a claim through its platform.

https://entp.hud.gov/dsrs/refunds/: The U.S. Department of Housing allows users to check eligibility for a refund from the Department of Housing and Urban Development or Federal Housing Association.

Internal Revenue Service: The IRS allows taxpayers to check the status of a refund.

unclaimed.org: This is the website of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Here you’ll learn more about making claims by states, but it will ultimately lead you back to missingmoney.com

unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca: The Bank of Canada also has a useful tool to search for any unclaimed money or properties.

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/treasury-hunt/ This tool helps users search for “matured, uncashed savings bonds.” Bonds will be thirty years old and no longer earning interest.

Unpaid foreign claims: This helps people who’ve had specific losses in a foreign country, and in some cases helps them claim money from the U.S. government.

Reports of unclaimed money: This page lists unclaimed properties in various categories.

Before getting started, you probably want to conduct a national search and searches by individual states — depending on where you’ve lived.

Scammers and fee-chargers

All the websites and resources above are free. You don’t have to pay a fee to use them or to file your claim.

There are multiple companies called “locator services” that are in the business to help people retrieve assets — but for a fee. You can just as easily conduct this research and file your claims without their help.

Here’s how they find you. They use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain information on uncashed checks that federal, state, and local government agencies have issued.

Armed with these names they can try to locate you and offer their help collecting your properties. For this service you’ll pay a “finder’s fee.” No thanks!

Then there are are downright scammers preying particularly on older people — assuring them they’ve got long lost monies being held by the government or by some company they used to work for. Don’t fall for it!

My own experience with MissingMoney.com

When my father passed away in 2008, I was the executrix of his estate. It took several months to get everything settled — which in reality was a short amount of time considering the assets he’d accumulated.

But he was an organized, methodical planner. Every detail of his estate was accounted for, and even his funeral was pre-paid and arranged — right down to the payment of the hearse that carried his body from the church to the cemetery.

About a year after he died I read an article about MissingMoney.com. Just for the heck of it I entered his name.

I was surprised to see there was money waiting to be claimed from several sources — utility deposits from two of his properties, a hospital over payment, and a refund from an insurance company. The total claim was around $2,500.

I received the check and divided it between my siblings.

The article said you should keep checking the website annually for at least five years after the person is deceased. This is because properties will sometimes continue to come in from different sources.

A year later, I claimed another hospital refund in the amount of $200.

When my mother passed away in 2012, she was owed $125 for the utility deposit paid on her house from when she first bought it in 1965.

And when my friend Gina died in 2018 — as chronicled in the story below, I was her executor and power of attorney. She passed away believing she was almost broke.

Her father, a stingy, penny-pinching narcissist, died a year before she did. He neglected to tell her anything about his finances. Her mother, who’d died two years earlier, had also been clueless.

A few months after Gina’s death I conducted a MissingMoney search on her behalf. There was nothing being held in her name.

When I entered the information on her father, I was shocked to find almost four hundred thousand dollars sitting in stocks, waiting to be found.

It probably turns out many people have unclaimed property. Whether it’s in the “Under $100” category on the MissingMoney.com site, or $100K, it’s yours to claim.

So, go get busy — and find your missing funds!

Thank you for your time and attention.