Do you think of having unclaimed money sitting somewhere in treasury offices? It may be possible. Sometimes money gets lost in some odd places. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) claims that in every 10 Americans, at least one has unclaimed property.
States hold these amounts due to a federally mandated process known as escheatment. The escheatment rules specify that the forgotten or abandoned money should be returned to the state once the dormancy period elapses.
There are billions of dollars of unclaimed money in the state treasury across the United States. For Example, in 2019, the state of Arizona had more than $1.5 billion sitting in the treasury offices waiting for the rightful owners. Some of these amounts may belong to you. This blog gives a detailed guide to finding out if you have unclaimed money.
How to Find Out if You Have Unclaimed Money
Here are some practical tips to help you track those sleeping dollars:
1. Begin with your home state.
Finding an unclaimed property is pretty simple, depending on the state you live in. All states in the U.S. have independent treasury websites with different security verification and special search functions for unclaimed properties.
To determine the specific website for your home state treasury, type “unclaimed funds” in your Google search engine, followed by your state name. However, ensure you verify the site’s legitimacy because there is a possibility of many fake websites and scammers in the treasury realm.
2. Search for unclaimed property at the national level.
If you don’t find unclaimed property at the state level, it doesn’t mean the treasure offices don’t owe you. Extend your search to the national level, especially if you have been doing business or lived in many states. You can visit Unclaimed.org, a national website designed to connect you to treasury information from all the 50 states.
You can also use MissingMoney.com, a national free website recommended by the NAUPA that can give you financial information about unclaimed money from multiple states at the same time. The site is straightforward and requires only your official name and state of residence. It saves you time and the hassles associated with going through the websites of all the states you ever did business or lived in because it aggregates all your financial data in one place.
3. Check for unclaimed tax refunds at the IRS.
Sometimes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can refund your money without your knowledge. If you believe this body might owe you some amount, purpose to visit the site to check your financial data. If, by any chance, an employer holds your money, the IRS department gives you a grace period of at most three years to submit your claims. The IRS will then provide you with detailed information on when and where to get your money within a specified duration.
4. Search for retirement funds.
Different companies have different retirement plans. As you move from one company to another, things can get complicated, and your money can sit somewhere unclaimed in the process. It will be your responsibility to search where these retirement savings or other past benefits may have been deposited, transferred, or cashed out. Since various government sectors with legitimate websites control all these benefits and pension plans, you can contact the National Registry to find money accorded to you by your former employee. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp can also help you claim all cash tied to your pension plans.
At PeopleFinders, we understand that you can have unclaimed money sitting in treasury offices for various reasons. Follow our practical tips to locate these dormant dollars, or Contact us for more information on unclaimed money in the U.S.
