Unclaimed Property

While performing some unrelated research, I stumbled upon a state website offering a search feature for unclaimed property. I always thought of unclaimed property as inheritance left to an estranged relative. I learned unclaimed property includes wages, bank accounts, stock and dividends, rental/telephone/utility deposits, mortgage insurance refunds, and other uncashed checks.

If a final paycheck was not collected, if mailed checks were not forwarded, if deposit refunds were not collected, balances remain open as unclaimed property. For most businesses it is cheaper to turn funds over to the state than to actively pursue people. Speaking from experience I know people are very wary of a caller offering an uncashed check to deposit.

I have not found a state without an online search tool for unclaimed property. The commonality is basically you search by last name and any matches display the first name, last name, address city, and the party who held the property. It's simple and quick. Here are a few sites:

Connecticut: http://www.ctbiglist.com/
Florida: http://www.fltreasurehunt.org/index.jsp
Illinois: http://www.cashdash.net/
Indiana: https://www.indianaunclaimed.com/apps/ag/ucp/index.html
New Mexico: http://ec3.state.nm.us/ucp/
New York: https://ouf.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/
North Carolina: http://www.nctreasurer.com/Dsthome/

When I did a few searches, within ten seconds I had two definite matches for friends in NY. Moments later I found a college roommate match in IN. I passed this along to those people and one friend in NY said he found matches for three relatives, two more friends and his boss. There is no such thing as free money but this is about as close as you could find for about as little work as you could do to get money. So everyone should take several minutes to check the states they lived in over their lives and do their friends and families the service too. It's free to look and most states have online claim forms.