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’ll have to add this to my list of things to put off doing!
I had a few hundred between two states. The largest ones look like some settlements
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.
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
I accept your comment for value.
1k for family from a couple claims.
Awesome. Thank you for this post.
Nice! Glad it was helpful.
The couple claims what? How are they related to your family?
I must know!
I found my friend is owed $438
I got about $75 back
Why less?
It’s two separate people
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
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
In my line of work, it’s a legal thing and a balancing the books thing. The business can’t legally keep the money because it is being held in trust for that particular person, and only that person is allowed to get those funds (unless they die, then it becomes part of their estate). We can’t just wait a certain number of years and say ha! you didn’t get your funds in time, and now they’re mine!
While we have the funds in trust, the case isn’t fully closed as far as our accounting department is concerned. Accounting doesn’t want uncashed checks out there and doesn’t like the idea of holding onto client funds indefinitely because they have to keep track of all of that, and we’ve had something like 40,000 clients in the last 30-40 years. Their goal is to get that account down to zero so there are no funds for that client left in their account.
At a certain point, if we can’t hunt that person down, we have to get this money off our books. Otherwise, if it was legally allowed, we could be stuck holding these funds for decades and having to manage them that whole time. In my particular state, businesses legally have to submit it as unclaimed property after 5 years. The goal was to have all these funds in one location so people don’t have to search at a bunch of different places to find unclaimed funds. Really, it’s a benefit to both the business and the people searching for their funds. We get to clear it off the books, and they have a one-stop shop for receiving any unclaimed funds. It sounds like different types of funds have different waiting periods. I believe the department of revenue also makes efforts to find the owner of those funds.
Lots of different businesses use this system. Say you have a savings account out there somewhere that you completely forgot about, so it’s been sitting there with no activity for years. Since then, maybe you’ve moved or gotten a new phone number. If the bank sends you letters and emails and calls you but still can’t get in contact after 5 years, they are going to close the account and send those funds to the state. It could be submitted by an insurance company who has settlement funds or reimbursement funds for ending a policy. It could be that you overpaid on something, and the business is trying to return the difference to you, but can’t find you. Basically, if some business owes you money in any way, but can’t for some reason get it to you, they have to submit it to the state. I’m assuming it works the same if the next of kin can’t be found for an estate.
I’m not sure how the business to business funds would work, but businesses here are required to have a registered agent who is responsible for receiving subpoenas or whatever else for the business, so hunting down the owner seems like it’s a bit easier, but I’ve never worked on that side, so I don’t really know.
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!
Also do your HOA, if you happen to live in one. I became my HOA president, I found $150,000 (!!!) with the state treasury as abandoned.
Fuck my life but I got it back
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hot dang! I found 200$! That’s awesome!!!
Thanks for letting people know!!! (:
