Long Lost Money? I've Found Thousands Of Dollars In Unclaimed Property For Friends & Family– Here's How To Find Yours
Who says there's no thing as a free lunch?
Recent estimates show that Americans collectively have around $70 billion in unclaimed property. State law typically requires unclaimed property to be held for its rightful owner, sometimes for decades. The average claim is about $2,000, but this obscures the fact that the claims range from a few cents in value at the low end to millions of dollars at the high end. The amount of money is often surprising– in some cases, interest has been compounding on the funds for decades. Common sources of unclaimed property include abandoned bank accounts, uncashed money orders, insurance overpayments, payroll checks, gift cards, dividends, and mineral interests.
Tens of millions of Americans have unclaimed property. There is a very useful website named missingmoney.com, run by a collection of U.S. and Canadian states/provinces. The website serves as a sort of master list of unclaimed property in North America. Just today, I put in a claim for $50 on a long-lost expired gift card, and the state of Missouri is now mailing me a check.
I promise this isn’t any kind of scam. I’ve told skeptical friends and neighbors about this. They’ve put in claims, and to their shock, the checks come in the mail not long after, and they clear. In my experience, most people over 40 that I’ve helped with this have had at least $100 that’s easily claimed. And if you or your family has or had a business or significant investments, then the amounts tend to go up from there. My family has recovered tens of thousands of dollars worth of unclaimed property over the years.
How To Find Unclaimed Property
Go to missingmoney.com.
Type in your first and last name in the search function.
Source: Missingmoney.com
Sift through to match the list of unclaimed property with property that corresponds with cities and/or addresses you’ve lived. For example, this is the $50 in expired gift card money I scored today.
Source: Missingmoney.com
Once you’ve identified property that belongs to you, you generally have to go to the corresponding state Treasurer’s website to file a claim, although sometimes you can file a claim directly on the missingmoney website. If your social security number and other info matches the state’s records, that’s usually all you need to do. They’ll simply mail you a check and you cash it.
A substantial portion of missing money is decades old, and you’ll often be entitled to missing money as an heir as well. To maximize the amount of money you can make, you’ll want to search for your current name, your maiden name if you have one, and for the names of deceased relatives. These claims are somewhat more complicated as you’ll often have to send in proof of marriage or death certificates, but older claims can often be for far more money as well. It may be a bit daunting at first, but it’s really not that hard. Your hourly return on the time you spend on this will almost always be over $50 per hour, and usually over $100 per hour as well. If you find money for your living relatives, the states won’t give it to you directly, but you can tell them to file claims as well, and probably at least demand a bottle of wine out of it if the money is enough!
Bottom Line
That’s really all there is to it. As always, I have nothing to sell you, and I hope you find this useful. Go forth and find your long-lost money!