States House Millions in Unclaimed Money

The large amount of unclaimed money is turing out to be a logistic nightmare for the states: trying to manage and store increasing pile of unclaimed money, while on the one hand they are fighting the economic slowdown with all their might.

It is estimated that at any point of time, State governments are storing more than $40 billion dollars in unclaimed money and assets. It can be said that about 30 million Americans are believed to have unclaimed money lying somewhere in the state coffers.

Some of the most pertinent questions that are frequently asked are:

• Where does this unclaimed money come from?
• How can the rightful owner of this unclaimed money or property claim his property?

Where does the state-housed unclaimed money or property come from?

Unclaimed money or property can have its origin in many stages of a person’s personal and professional life. Some of the most common types of unclaimed money that states are holding are:

• Utility deposit, store refunds, etc.
• Cashier’s checks
• Bonds and Mutual fund certificates
• Abandoned checking and saving accounts
• Gift certificates & Traveler's Checks
• Safe deposit boxes, Royalty payments, and Court payments or deposits

Some of the richest states in terms of unclaimed money are California, Texas and New York, but even states like Wisconsin, Maine and Michigan are witnessing a spike in unclaimed money. Every state has taken adequate measures to make the claim process easier for the residents. Most of the states have a website for unclaimed money and property. These websites have claim forms which can be submitted online to initiate the process of claim.

Some of the bigger figures for State based unclaimed money are…

• New York: More than $10.5 billion
• California: Almost $6 billion belonging to approximately 11.5 individuals
• Texas: The state treasury is holding up around $2 billion in unclaimed money and properties

Every state has its own rule for unclaimed money recovery and redundancy. Most of the states follow a minimum time frame before the money or property is considered unclaimed or abandoned. Most of us live through 4 or 5 states during our professional career. It is highly likely that the state treasury of these states are holding some of your missing money. It makes sense to search the databases for all the states where you or your relatives have resided.

It is often debated that during these trying economic times, the vast piles of unclaimed money held up by the state governments are a good source for temporary government funding for projects which are being stalled because of the lack of funds. States like Florida, which has a large pool of retirees is witnessing a greater share of unclaimed money because of the retirement-related unclaimed money.

Since most of these higher age group population are either unaware of their unclaimed cash or don’t have the resources to pursue a retrieval – leading to an increasing pile of unclaimed money. If you know somebody who might have a share in the state held unclaimed money pool, go ahead and share the knowledge and process to claim their hard earned money.