Claim Your Missing Money

2008-01-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

In a recent report on Berlin's Associated Press, Warren Buffet, one of the world's leading masters of money has confirmed our worst fears- the recession is here and it's going to hang around a while. Fuel prices can go higher, as will those of basic food commodities. Across the US, people are being forced to make lifestyle changes to cope with the economic crisis. We're all desperate to get extra cash and although hard to believe, a lot of us can actually get a considerable amount from our State Treasurer! Treasury Departments all over the U.S. are holding-on to large piles of unclaimed funds belonging to state residents who have lost track of their financial assets. The current national unclaimed property fund totals to roughly $35 billion and it's getting bigger every because most owners of unclaimed property aren't even aware that the government is holding on to their missing money.

200,000 Vt residents for example don't seem to know they're missing money in Vermont. For such a small state, it has a significant amount of unclaimed property- around $42 million worth unclaimed funds. A retired teacher was surprised with $150,000 from forgotten stocks her husband had purchased in the 1960's and even state agencies are on the Vermont unclaimed money list. The state Transportation Agency has $60.87 in three unclaimed amounts and Vermont Senate President Peter Shumlin has unclaimed money in his name.

“To receive $23,000 that you basically didn’t know existed is quite nice,” says 84-year old West Virginia resident Anne McConihay after getting reunited with some of her missing money from old stocks and bonds her father had purchased several years ago. The West Virginia unclaimed money found their way to the state's Unclaimed Property Division due to escheat laws. “I had heard things about those bonds through the years but never saw any of them.” added McConihay.

According to West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue, unclaimed property can come from several sources- mostly because people just plain forgot about them. “They may have a paycheck coming to them that they didn’t realize or some stock their grandparents purchased when they were a child and it was forgotten in a safety deposit box,” Perdue says. “There are all kinds of unclaimed property examples where money was forgotten.” Tangible items collected from safe deposit boxes are sold-off each year to make space for incoming unclaimed property. The Rhode Island State Treasury recently made $374,000 from selling RI unclaimed property on Ebay. A big portion of the sales came from an 1898 Tiffany cup that was sold-off for $50,000.

Some people that are aware that they might be owed unclaimed money don't even bother trying to check for their missing money, thinking it's too much of a hassle and not worth the effort. True, most claims are for $50 or less, but there have been windfalls like McConihay's in West Virginia. It's actually quite easy to do an unclaimed money search online and with the help of a legitimate unclaimed property expert who will teach you how to find your missing money, a thorough search through several state databases can be done right now from where you're sitting. And with the current state of the US economy right now, wouldn't your lost cash be better-off in your hands sooner rather than later? If you lived in a state like Idaho, you might even lose your unclaimed funds to the state! Wouldn't it suck to find-out you had a couple of grand sitting-around and have the government take it? Find out if you have state unclaimed money in your name before you lose it forever!