Unclaimed Property ⏬👇

Unclaimed property refers to money or other assets that are held by a business and whose owners can’t be located. This is often true for people whose names are no longer on bank accounts, but might also apply for anyone who has a safe deposit box whose key has been lost.

Unclaimed Property refers to the funds, accounts, stocks, or other assets that financial organizations have in their possession for the rightful owners of the accounts but for one reason or another, neither the organization nor the rightful owner knows about it. Unclaimed Property laws were put in place to ensure all Americans get their due and to prevent businesses from being able to keep money that isn’t theirs. It is commonly referred to as “lost” or “unclaimed” money. Unclaimed property is money or other intangible property that a person has lost and has not claimed in a timely fashion. Unclaimed Property law requires states to regularly search for owners of money and property that have remained inactive for several years.

What is Unclaimed Property?

This property is property that has been abandoned, lost or forgotten about. If you’re owed money by someone who cannot be found, it may be Unclaimed Property. It  is non-negotiable property, such as money and stocks, that a business or government agency has held for more than one year. Statutes of limitation require the returned property to be claimed by someone before it is transferred to the State Treasurer’s Office in order for you to claim it.

Unclaimed property is property that has been abandoned or unclaimed by its owner. These are often from abandoned bank accounts, stocks, safe deposit boxes, pensions, physical personal property and general insurance contracts. Unclaimed property laws require companies and government agencies to turn over their accounts if the owners cannot be located. If you own an account at a financial institution and have not written to claim your property within three years of the date it was placed into our unclaimed property program, then your money could have been turned over to the State Controller for safekeeping. For example, if you lost your wallet on vacation and never made it back to claim your money, the extra funds would be considered Unclaimed Property since nobody came forward for them. If you recently purchased a vehicle or inherited money from someone who lived in a different state than you, you may have Unclaimed Property waiting to be claimed by you.

The main reason why people do not claim their unclaimed property is that they have no clue as to how to proceed in claiming it or some of them ignore it for fear of paying any fees or taxes for claiming what is rightfully theirs.

This can be due to a number of reasons such as change in addresses and even a simple misplacement of the information. There are laws that require companies and organizations to report unclaimed property within a given period of time (usually 5 years). In some jurisdictions, reports may have to be made as soon as there is reasonable belief that something could be considered unclaimed property. You might even find your own name, if you are not paying close attention!