My state runs a "Treasure Hunt" website for unclaimed property. What are the chances that some of the money belongs to me?
The chances that you have unclaimed property parked on a state database are surprisingly good. The average person has more than $100 just waiting to be picked up.
This blog is all about helping you find that money. It's a treasure map of sorts.
The key to the treasure lies in finding the appropriate search engine for the appropriate database, and most of those search engines may be found by using the links listed at right.
Where is the best place to hunt?
Recently, the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) created a shared database for missing property that covers 41 states, territories and Canadian provinces. They've created a website called missingmoney.com that has a free and easy-to-use search engine.
Missingmoney.com has been very successful in matching owners with missing money and unclaimed property.
The author of this blog can testify that in the space of only four hours, by sitting at a coffee shop on a snowy morning and running the list of his Facebook friends through the national search engine at missingmoney.com, he discovered more than $2000 in unclaimed property belonging to friends and family.
That's a return rate of $500 per hour, just for slurping coffee and putting names into a simple search engine.
The author himself received only $35 (an unclaimed jury duty check) but that certainly paid for his time and the coffee. And there are also reports of some amazing cases in which people became millionaires overnight.
For example, in December 2011, Missouri Treasurer Clint Zweifel told CBS that he had returned $6.1 million in unclaimed property to a Kansas City woman who chose to remain anonymous. Zweifel considered the amount a state record, if not a national record.
In follow up stories, Reuters News service reported that the state of Missouri oversees more than $600 million in unclaimed property and has 38 cases of $100,000 each for which no claimant has been found.
That's a lot of cash rattling around in the database of just one state. Multiply by 50 and you get the idea.
If I have unclaimed property, how do I claim it?
Go to the website of the state holding your money using the links at right. Fill out the claim form on the website of the state holding the money, or ask that a claim form be mailed to you. The author of this blog cannot help you file your claim. You must find the appropriate claim form and fill it out yourself, supplying all of the documents required by the state.
Contact information for each state or province (addresses and phone numbers) may be found at the missingmoney.com contact page here:
http://www.missingmoney.com/Main/StateSites.cfm
What is "unclaimed property" exactly?
Unclaimed property consists of money and other personal assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner cannot be located after a specified period of time. The owner may be living or dead.
How does property become "unclaimed"?
Generally, wages become unclaimed after one year, and all other property is considered unclaimed if it has been abandoned three to five years (the exact time frame depends on the laws of the state).
Does Unclaimed Property include real estate? Houses? Boats? Cars?
No. Note well that "unclaimed property" generally does not mean real estate, houses, boats, cars, furniture, clothing, jewelry, stamps, coins or the personal items abandoned in storage lockers, hospitals, hotels or apartments.
Real estate and personal items are considered "tangible assets." When tangible assets go unclaimed, they are generally sold or auctioned off. The money is then sent to the state's unclaimed property department. On occasion, the state itself will take charge of the auction.
For a list of state auction pages, see the bottom of the links list at right.
Unclaimed Property generally means cash -- lost or unclaimed money. These "intangible assets" may include:
- savings accounts,
- checking accounts,
- stocks,
- bonds,
- certificates of deposit,
- dividends,
- unpaid wages,
- uncashed checks,
- money orders,
- gift cards and gift certificates,
- customer overpayments,
- refunds,
- commissions,
- insurance payments,
- paid-up life insurance policies,
- death benefits, and
- the monetary proceeds of estate sales, safe deposit box auctions, storage locker auctions or abandoned apartment auctions.
Why does the state get involved?
For several reasons:
- To locate owners and their heirs
- To offer the convenient service of a central repository
- To protect the rights of absentee owners
- To guarantee that the property will be held in custody for the amount of time required by law
- To give the citizens of the state the benefit of assets that would otherwise become windfall profits to individual businesses and corporations
- To give businesses and organizations relief from the expenses and legal liabilities involved when holding property that does not belong to them
What does the state do with Unclaimed Property?
After the property holder attempts to locate the owner, the property must be turned over to the state, usually to an Unclaimed Property unit within the state's Department of Treasury, Department of Revenue, or Department of Commerce.
The state collects the assets, holds them in custody, then makes its own attempt to find current and former owners to help them claim the assets. These attempts to locate current owners are often unsuccessful. Therefore most states provide an online search engine or Unclaimed Property website to help owners or relatives who may be searching for lost money.
See the list of state search engines at right.
How is Unclaimed Property accounted for?
Each state differs, but most put the money into a General Fund, that is a large trust fund that earns interest. The interest is used to pay for administrative fees and processing costs. Although the money belongs to the owner, who may claim it at any time, the money may be used in the interim to defray operating costs.
How much money is involved?
During the year 2010, the 50 United States and their neighboring provinces in Canada were trying to return more than $16 billion in unclaimed property to rightful owners. The State of California has more than $6.1 billion of unclaimed property on its books, and the average state takes custody of at least $100 million in unclaimed property each year.
Why do the states set up "Treasure Hunt" websites?
The "Treasure Hunt" theme is appropriate because large amounts of money are involved, and the unclaimed property managers are usually from the state's department of treasury.
The "treasure hunt" websites have been built for literally the same reason that a pirate draws a treasure map: to help surviving relatives with what amounts to a hunt for lost or hidden money.
People need the help.
$41 Billion in uncashed gift cards alone
To give you some idea just how difficult the process of collecting and returning unclaimed property can be, consider this: State regulators estimate that more than $41 billion in gift cards have gone uncashed since 2005, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the insurance industry is currently holding more than $1 billion in unclaimed life insurance and death benefits.
The treasury or revenue department of each state has a legal obligation to enforce the return of such money to the rightful owners. But can you imagine how expensive it would be to hire all the people necessary to chase down every single unclaimed gift card in a large city, or every single unclaimed insurance policy in a state?
Collecting unclaimed property can be difficult. The property holder (the gift card seller or insurance company) may actually reside in another state, hiding behind a bewildering array of corporate fronts and P.O. boxes.
Assuming the property holder is honest enough to obey the law and turn over the money, the state then faces another big problem: processing. For each item of unclaimed property collected, they need to set up a holding account for the rightful owner and enter all the information on their database. That's a ton of data entry.
Finally comes the biggest hurdle of all: The state needs, somehow, to contact the owner and return the property.
Where's the Heir?
Paradoxically, the only reason the property was turned over to the state in the first place was because the property owner could not be located. Will the state have any more luck finding the rightful owner than the original property holder did?
Probably not. In fact, if the property involved is a gift card worth less than $50, it makes no sense whatever for a state worker who is paid $10 an hour to spend more than two hours on the combined tasks of collecting the money, setting up a claim account, doing the data entry and making a very quick effort at locating the owner.
Indeed, the Unclaimed Property offices in each state are woefully understaffed and underfunded, and the unclaimed property administrators consider themselves lucky if they can successfully return as much as $30 million per year (about one third of the property collected).
They simply don't have the labor to plow through the huge amount of cash in their custody.
They have therefore created "Treasure Hunt" websites and simple search engines like MissingMoney.com in hopes that the rightful owners will come forward and hunt for the property themselves.
The States Need the Help of Honest Finders
The unclaimed property managers actually need the help of honest property finders who are willing to take the time to do the key steps:: matching the property to the right person and giving that person a call.
Unless the rightful property owner has friends or family who are willing to do the hunting and matching, there's a very good chance that the owner of the unclaimed property will never see the money. It can sit on a state database for years.
If a family or a church group or a bowling league or a school alumni association is willing to do the hunting and matching, however, the monetary pay off to that group or organization can be surprisingly large.
Treasure hunting is a fun hobby, a kind community service, and it pays!
Hidden TreasureWhy do the states set up "Treasure Hunt" websites?
The "Treasure Hunt" theme is appropriate because large amounts of money are involved, and the unclaimed property managers are usually from the state's department of treasury.
The "treasure hunt" websites have been built for literally the same reason that a pirate draws a treasure map: to help surviving relatives with what amounts to a hunt for lost or hidden money.
People need the help.
$41 Billion in uncashed gift cards alone
To give you some idea just how difficult the process of collecting and returning unclaimed property can be, consider this: State regulators estimate that more than $41 billion in gift cards have gone uncashed since 2005, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the insurance industry is currently holding more than $1 billion in unclaimed life insurance and death benefits.
The treasury or revenue department of each state has a legal obligation to enforce the return of such money to the rightful owners. But can you imagine how expensive it would be to hire all the people necessary to chase down every single unclaimed gift card in a large city, or every single unclaimed insurance policy in a state?
Collecting unclaimed property can be difficult. The property holder (the gift card seller or insurance company) may actually reside in another state, hiding behind a bewildering array of corporate fronts and P.O. boxes.
Assuming the property holder is honest enough to obey the law and turn over the money, the state then faces another big problem: processing. For each item of unclaimed property collected, they need to set up a holding account for the rightful owner and enter all the information on their database. That's a ton of data entry.
Finally comes the biggest hurdle of all: The state needs, somehow, to contact the owner and return the property.
Where's the Heir?
Paradoxically, the only reason the property was turned over to the state in the first place was because the property owner could not be located. Will the state have any more luck finding the rightful owner than the original property holder did?
Probably not. In fact, if the property involved is a gift card worth less than $50, it makes no sense whatever for a state worker who is paid $10 an hour to spend more than two hours on the combined tasks of collecting the money, setting up a claim account, doing the data entry and making a very quick effort at locating the owner.
Indeed, the Unclaimed Property offices in each state are woefully understaffed and underfunded, and the unclaimed property administrators consider themselves lucky if they can successfully return as much as $30 million per year (about one third of the property collected).
They simply don't have the labor to plow through the huge amount of cash in their custody.
They have therefore created "Treasure Hunt" websites and simple search engines like MissingMoney.com in hopes that the rightful owners will come forward and hunt for the property themselves.
The States Need the Help of Honest Finders
The unclaimed property managers actually need the help of honest property finders who are willing to take the time to do the key steps:: matching the property to the right person and giving that person a call.
Unless the rightful property owner has friends or family who are willing to do the hunting and matching, there's a very good chance that the owner of the unclaimed property will never see the money. It can sit on a state database for years.
If a family or a church group or a bowling league or a school alumni association is willing to do the hunting and matching, however, the monetary pay off to that group or organization can be surprisingly large.
Treasure hunting is a fun hobby, a kind community service, and it pays!
Finally, for those individual treasure hunters who decide to help their friends and community, there is also a hidden benefit that is truly priceless: the joy of making another person's day a little bit brighter by sending them some good news: "Hey! You have more than $100 in unclaimed property at missingmoney.com . . . "
If you are willing to use this weblog to find unclaimed property for your family, friends and neighbors, you will indeed have an almost endless supply of good news to give.
To quote the NAUPA motto "You're richer than you think!"
