How To Find Your Unclaimed Money
So I was over on Get Rich Slowly doing my usual reading and I saw this post about finding unclaimed money and property. So naturally I have been on here searching every person I know to see if I can be the one to break the good news to them that they have money they never knew about! Check out the site and read the whole article and let me know if you find any money....I need claim my finders fee! :)
How to find unclaimed money
I’ve written before about using MissingMoney.com to find unclaimed property. The latest issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser has a great article describing how to find forgotten assets. From the story:
It’s easier than ever to find forgotten property thanks to the increasing number of databases. In most cases, it makes sense to do the sleuthing yourself rather than pay a finder firm to do it for you. If you locate funds that are yours, the fiduciary that holds them will provide specific instructions on how to claim them. You’ll need proof of your identity. If the property belonged to a deceased relative or friend, you’ll also have to prove that you are the executor of the estate or the rightful heir.
Here are the methods Consumer Reports recommends for finding and reclaiming lost property (along with a few tools I found on my own):
- For property held by states, use MissingMoney.com. (Or just scroll down this page to the list I’ve put together that links to each state’s unclaimed property department.)
- For unclaimed U.S. savings bonds, visit Treasury Hunt at the U.S. government’s Treasury Direct site.
- For accounts at a failed bank, visit the FDIC unclaimed funds site. For accounts at failed credit unions, visit the NCUA unclaimed funds site.
- To track down an abandoned defined-benefit pension, check out the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp missing participant database. If the plan is still active, you’ll need to read this PDF on finding a lost pension. (The Money Adviser article has more info on this subject.)
- To find an unclaimed 401(k) plan, visit the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. You may also want to read the afore-mentioned PDF on finding a lost pension from the PBGC.
- For missing life-insurance proceeds, try MissingMoney.com. The American Council of Life Insurers has some tips for finding a missing policy.
- If you think the IRS owes you money, head over to its website and use the Where’s My Refund? tool.
The U.S. government also has an official government may owe you money page where you can check for unclaimed property, mortgage refunds, and more. Also, my buddy Jeff Rose recommends visiting GovBenefits.gov to see if you qualify for any government benefits. (DisasterAssistance.gov lets you see if you qualify for disaster-relief programs.)
The Money Adviser article provides more information about working with each of these sources. And, of course, the individual websites have detailed instructions for locating unclaimed money and other assets.
Search for unclaimed money by state
In addition to those national searches, each state has a department for unclaimed money and unclaimed property. I found a page that linked to all of these different resources, but the site was woefully out of date. So, I spent a warm Sunday afternoon in my non-air-conditioned office tracking down the current locations of each state’s unclaimed property office. (And I’ve included some info for Canadians, too.) Please let me know if you spot any errors or broken links!
