Information, tips, advice and hints for treasure hunting starters.
Neither any true national unclaimed money or unclaimed property database, nor centralized national depository for unclaimed money and property are existent. Instead there are the registries of unclaimed money maintained by the states and the Federal District of Columbia separately.
Many people in America loose billions of dollars in unclaimed money in forms ranging from expired gift certificates to forgotten safe deposit boxes and bank accounts just because they don't know the unclaimed money is still out there waiting to be claimed and collected from state or federal government. Statistically, the rightful owners are being reimbursed by federal government and governments of states only 4% of unclaimed assets for that simple reason that the majority of owners don't know there's the cash owed to them.
Unclaimed money search should be started from recalling the places where you lived or worked, without leaving out your deceased family members - you may be entitled for an unclaimed inheritance you are unaware of!
Mind that general online unclaimed property databases are incomplete. Certain types of unclaimed government checks, benefits, bonds and refunds are excluded from state unclaimed property databases totally, such as, say, unclaimed money due by federal agencies (IRS refunds, Social Security and VA benefits, US Savings Bonds to list just a few of them)...
Records Registry can help you to dig real deap, going way far beyond what other methods or tools allow.
Unclaimed government money related News
$42m dividends left unclaimed. (24 Apr 2006-Herald Sun). AT least 125,000 people are missing out on $42 million in dividends from IAG and AMP simply because the companies cannot contact them. The money, an average $336 a person, is believed to be mainly owed to small shareholders, many of whom were given their stake when the companies listed on the share market.
UK unclaimed money ussues
1 December 2005. New independent Commission on Unclaimed Assets will review how billions of pounds of
unclaimed assets can be reclaimed by their owners or channelled to benefit communities right across the UK. Over the past two years leading members of the Government have signalled their determination to act on the issue of unclaimed assets – savings and other forms of investments that lie unclaimed for years and sometimes even decades. The total size of the unclaimed assets is unknown, but it is thought the figure may top 5 billion pounds for dormant accounts at British banks alone. It has been claimed in recent years that the banks have been exploiting these funds to help boost their profitability.
The Commission Chairman Ronald Cohen commented: "Our first concern must be to re-unite consumers with their money wherever possible. This should be made as simple and as free to do as possible, with every penny of accrued interest fully reimbursed. Based on experiences elsewhere in the world, we would expect that around six out of ten dormant account holders will get their money back in a short period of time. For that high proportion of people, our aim is both to publicise this important consumer issue and to devise effective systems for the return of these funds to their rightful owners. As for the money that remains unclaimed, we must never forget that this is neither the Government’s nor the banks' property – but the people's money. This is why we are determined to engage in a very broad public consultation process so that as many interested parties are able to have a proper say about how the money should be spent in order to have the biggest impact possible on deprived communities in Britain". Read the press release
