If someone handed you a check, no strings attached, would you take it? In this economy, many of us would consider it. The state of Texas recently sent me such a check. It wasn't big--about $12--but it was mine for the taking. And when I say it was mine, I mean it was money I owned that the state had been holding for me. You see, I'd moved and forgotten to notify a brokerage firm of my new address, but there was money remaining in my account. By law, that money was eventually turned over to the state, which held it until the rightful owner (me!) was located.
Do you have money waiting to be claimed? Now is as good of a time as any to claim it!
Under state and federal laws, unclaimed money (and certain other types of property) must be held until its rightful owner can be located. This property would include:
- Bank accounts, including checking and savings accounts, as well as CDs
- Unclaimed paychecks
- Company stock
- Dividend payments
- Refunds
- Insurance payments
- Trust distributions
- Security deposits paid to utility companies
- Unredeemed money orders
- Unused gift certificates (in some states)
- The contents of safety deposit boxes (which are usually sold, and the value of the sold property is held for its rightful owner)
- The estate of someone who dies without a will and with no known relatives
According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, owners claimed $1.754 billion in abandoned property in 2006, and $32.877 billion in unclaimed property is still being held by state administrators.
State laws govern the process, but in general, companies must take certain steps to locate the owners of unclaimed or abandoned property. If the owners can't be located after a certain amount of time, the property is turned over to the state, which will hold onto it until the owners are found.
To find out whether there's money being held in your name, search the state databases of unclaimed property.
Unclaimed property is turned over to the state in which a person is known to have last lived. If there is no known address for the property's owner (or if the owner has a foreign address), the unclaimed property is turned over to the state in which the business holding the property is headquartered.
If you're like me and have lived in several states, you should check the databases in all of the places where you've lived. For example, I had a savings account with a bank branch located in Texas, but I was living in Illinois. I moved and forgot to notify the bank of my new address. The bank turned the money over to Illinois authorities. When I lived in Texas, I had money in a brokerage account with a Maryland-based firm. My search of the Texas abandoned property database led me to receive that $12 check.
You should search the state databases at least yearly. The states give companies a varying amount of time (usually ranging from one to five years) to locate the owners of unclaimed property. Once property is turned over to the state, it will be kept forever until the owner or an heir claims it. However, the money is not earning interest, so it makes sense to claim it promptly.
If you're the executor of an estate or an heir, you should also search the databases for a few years after a person's death. When writing this article, I searched for a deceased family member's name, and found some unclaimed property of theirs. (I sent an email to the executor, who would be responsible for claiming it.)
The databases of better-organized states will provide some basic details about the unclaimed property:
- The owner's last known address
- The name of the company that reported the property as unclaimed
- The value of the property
For example, I discovered that a "Jennifer King" in Texas was listed as having unclaimed property worth 57 cents. It wasn't mine, but if it were it wouldn't have been worth the time and postage necessary to submit the claims forms. Other states won't tell you the value of the money they're holding, so you might go to the effort to claim money only to discover it wasn't worth the effort.
Claiming your property is relatively easy, though it will require you to prove you're the rightful owner. You'll have to:
- Submit a claim form
- Show that you are the original owner, or are making a claim on behalf of the original owner (for example, if you're an estate executor or heir, or the legal guardian of the owner), or making the claim on behalf of a company that owns the abandoned property
- Provide your social security number or taxpayer identification number, and evidence that you lived or did business at the last known address of the property owner
It only takes a few minutes to search the state databases, so I'd encourage you to do it now while it's fresh in your mind!
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