Unclaimed property!!

Sue C

Active Member
I've heard of the government holding unclaimed property for people and wanting to give the money back to them. I've always thought yeah right. Well, I happened to check the Wisconsin State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property listing this morning and found MY name with an address I lived at 10 years ago! It says it's from a hospital which I did not recognize. I did a search on the internet and found the hospital in Illinois. It still did not ring a bell but the photo looked familiar. Then it dawned on me. That was where Angela went for her short-term drug rehab!

Anyway, this is exciting. Wonder how much money I'm going to get back? (even if it's a few bucks, it's still cool)

So....everyone, your assignment is to find your state's unclaimed property site and type in your name (don't forget married and maiden names) and see if you have any money waiting to be given back to you and report back here if you find anything.

Sue
 
R

runawaybunny

Guest
http://unclaimed.org/

A couple of years ago I found $100 of ours and over $30K- for my cousin doing unclaimed property searches. Many years ago she had owned a couple of rental properties with her former husband. All that money was sitting in escrow and tax withholding accounts that she didn't know about...
 

WhymeMom?

No real answers to life..
I know my son has some unclaimed money, paychecks he never picked up. I do believe when they go thru the state it is legitimate....they wanted his driver's license or copy, etc. The only id I would NOT send would be Social Security number....
 
K

Kjs

Guest
Nope. no money for me. I remember when I was younger my mom and dad would talk and my mom would get mad because my dad handled all the finances, and he had money in many places. She would always say if something happened to you I don't even know where all our money is. So, My dad has been gone 10 years now, mom cannot speak and in nursing home for atleast 5 years, probably longer. I put her name in and two came up. I sent the link to my sister who lives in town with mom. I believe my brother has power of attorney and does all the legal stuff, and my sister does all the medical stuff. Hope they check into it.
 

On_Call

New Member
I work in a law office and do estate work. Several years ago, I was working on an estate and the lady had several unclaimed items in the State data base. We have to provide all sorts of information - and fill out forms (some on-line and some the old-fashioned way) - and it took roughly 12 months, but we were able to get the funds. I'm not sure if it takes the same amount of time in all states, though.

Good luck.

PS: I have checked in the past for our names (mine & husband's), but sadly, nothing!
 

Sue C

Active Member
Yes, this is legitimate.....provided you go through your State Treasurer's website.

I started checking for relatives and friends. So far I've found claims for:

my deceased grandfather
my brother's wife
husband's deceased uncle
husband's deceased grandma
Melissa's former boyfriend's dad.

Well, back to checking. This is fun. Wait 'til I tell all these people (or their heirs) about their unclaimed money.

Sue
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
We've had that happen many times. It was always a stock dividend that was shared between husband and his dad. His dad bought him single shares of stock when he was a paperboy, umpteen gazillion yrs ago. Eventually we get the addresses straight, and the HUGE check for 59 cents comes in the mail... LOL.
 

On_Call

New Member
I had to laugh when I read about the .59 check!! Jeesh! You probably spent that much on postage sending the docs, etc.

The estate I worked on - the decedent had several hundred shares of Eastman Kodak stock that her late husband had received when he worked there years and years ago. If she had only known when she was alive - it was a good chunk of change!
 

KFld

New Member
I actually got a letter in the mail from the state treasurers office telling me I had unlcaimed property. I had to go to the website and print out forms to have notarized. The site showed me I have unclaimed dividends from a stock my grandmother left me, but I have no idea how much. I mailed everything last week, so I'm just waiting.

Maybe I'm a millionaire and I don't even know it
 

runawaybunny

Administrator
Staff member
It had been a few years since I searched the unclaimed property databases so I did some quick searches last week. I found several unclaimed accounts belonging to a few different family members. The biggest one was $1,898. Smallest one was $31.

It's worth a try: http://www.unclaimed.org/

also try: http://missingmoney.com/

I came up with different results doing the same searches on each site so it's worth the extra couple of minutes to search both.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I just did this...and I'm getting a whopping $5.90! At last, I can retire. LOL

But I ran a couple friends names and they have $100 or more each. Wonder if I'll get a finder's fee? :D
 

Nomad

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I did this about five years ago and found$ 600. It was an account I opened a long time ago and it is very hard to believe I forgot about it. Must have been during family crisis time. I had my husband check on the website I used under his name and nothing came up.

Well, recently we started getting solicitations from attorneys that they would help him collect money he is owed. So, I told him to check that site again. And, something came up. An old account of his mother's. However, she passed away probably ten years ago and it didn't show up before.

So, I'm thinking we all need to check these sites every few years.
 

svengandhi

Well-Known Member
In addition to maiden and married last names, if there are variants of the spelling of the first name, try that, too. I typed in the other way of spelling my first name and got $200+! I also suggest trying every couple of years because the account holders have to keep them for a certain amount of time before they escheat to the state so there could be new stuff coming in. In fact, I'm off to check the state website.
 

runawaybunny

Administrator
Staff member
It's a good idea to search first initial with the last name too. I found an unclaimed paycheck by searching only the first initial and last name. There was a typo in both the first name and the street name but the address numbers were correct. He was able to claim it.
 

GuideMe

Active Member
I gotta look one day. I never thought this things were actually true. Thank you for posting this, very good to know
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
One of my friends texted me the other day that one of the accounts she has is over $2,000! She also claims she sent away for the forms before I told her so I don't get a finders fee, the stinker! :mad: But she says she'll take me to dinner. I intend to order something expensive.

On the bright side, I got my form today! My $5.90 is within my grasp.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I found one for each husband and I for under $50 in our old state, which lets you know generally how much the claim is. Nothing in this state.

I found one for his mother, too, which I'm not sure how I'll have him deal with.

THANK YOU!
 

Nomad

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I did again for husband...two refunds totalling about $100. Yes, pays to re check once In awhile.
 
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