Unclaimed Money

Ironically in this time of economic turmoil, piles of Americans’ missing money are still sitting unclaimed in the various US State Treasuries. The current national total languishing in the various State Treasuries amounts to roughly $33 billion according to the Bureau of Unclaimed Money.

Reason for this is simple- the general public simply doesn’t know about the presence of unclaimed government money. Unclaimed money can come from uncollected final paychecks, dividends on old stocks and bonds, forgotten savings accounts or bank accounts or contents of safe deposit boxes belonging to the deceased. Lost assets can also come from stimulus checks that have been unclaimed or errors in the mailing address or personal information. Unclaimed funds also result from people moving to a new place and neglecting to notify banks, insurance companies and businesses about their change of address. This can result in lost mail, ergo lost money.

The National Unclaimed Property Law requires the IRS, banks, businesses and financial establishments to hand over lost assets to the Treasury as government unclaimed money after a specified dormancy period of 2-5 years depending on the asset. The Bureau of Unclaimed Money in the different States have the responsibility of putting the funds in safekeeping and most States do so in perpetuity- until an heir or proper beneficiary comes to file a claim. They are also tasked to locate and inform the rightful owners about their lost money. Lack of manpower or a known address prevents the government from reuniting everyone with their unclaimed funds however and this is why the various unclaimed money piles across the U.S. get bigger every year.

Another reason not enough people are finding their missing money is they lack the knowledge on how to do a proper unclaimed money search. A lot of potential recipients of state unclaimed funds fall trap to scammers that promise to find unclaimed property money for them ‘for a fee’. Others get lost in the sheer number of unclaimed money sites scattered throughout the internet, more often than not encountering dead ends.