Finding Unclaimed Money

Posted on September 14, 2007
Filed Under Finding Information |

It is estimated over 400 billion dollars of unclaimed money exists in the United States alone. It’s a shocking number, but what exactly is “unclaimed money”? The short answer is that it’s unclaimed property - which is any financial asset or sum of money that appears to have been abandoned. There are many situations where the government is unable to locate the owner of a sum of money, and return it. Likewise, there are many cases of forgotten banks accounts, uncashed checks, securities, dividends, wages, bail bonds, and the list goes on. It has been calculated that 9 out of 10 Americans are owed money, so it’s recommended you check depositories in the state you live in every few years. It’s also a good idea to do a money search after a relative dies, to make sure the rightful heir receives their funds.

Unfortunately, no agency or employee of the US Federal Government can help you recover unclaimed property. This is because there is no government-wide centralized information service or database from which the info can be obtained. Therefore, you need to take it upon yourself to do a little work on your own. Luckily, there are many informative sites out there ready to help.

We suggest starting with UnclaimedProperties.org. It has a good reputation and has been featured on notable television shows like Inside Edition, Oprah, Dateline, The O’Reilly Factor, and the covered in The Wall Street Journal Report. As of right now, it is a subscription only service, but members have access to over 55 online searchable databases - many of which are updated daily, and cover the entire United States. This is a site that offers full unclaimed money search resources to both professionals and amateur researchers.

Another good site to check out is MissingMoney.com, which is officially endorsed by NAUPA (National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators), and better yet, the searches are free of charge! There are many useful tools to help you online, you just have to do the leg work. Of course, finding a little (or a lot of) lost money is definitely worth a little (or maybe even a lot of) sweat on your part.

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