Unclaimed money held up in various state treasuries is almost touching $40 billion as of last estimate and the pile continues to grow bigger with every month. This roughly equates to 30 million Americans missing out on some unclaimed funds or property. Billions of unclaimed money is still being added to the state treasuries across the nation.
States like New York and California are getting richer because of the increasing volume of unclaimed funds. Most of the state treasuries have reported that the major source of unclaimed funds and properties are: abandoned bank accounts, unclaimed savings and checking accounts, child support payments, uncashed dividends, stocks, customer deposits or over payments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, matured life insurance policies, uncashed death benefit checks, and the contents of safety deposit boxes.
Some of the richest unclaimed fund treasuries in the U.S. are: New York with $10.5 billion, California with almost $6 billion, and Texas with $2 billion. A news report on unclaimed money has disclosed that unclaimed money is not only a looming issue for state governments, but also for local governments who have amassed almost $23 billion of unclaimed funds, out of which only $1 billion was claimed.
The U.S. federal government holds even more, including $17 billion in unredeemed savings bonds and hundreds of billions of unclaimed dollars in IRS refunds, retirement and Social Security checks that went undelivered or weren’t cashed.
To tackle the unabated growth of unclaimed money, a majority of the state treasuries and federal agencies have created reclaim programs and community awareness events which not only educates the residents about their possible missing funds, but also offers an avenue for filing a claim on-the-spot.
Irrespective of the organization or search agency, most of the unclaimed money websites have adequate information about the unclaimed money and the claim procedure. These websites are also equipped with claim forms which can be submitted online to expedite the process of claim. There are a select group of accredited and state-supported unclaimed money search agencies which are assisting the state treasuries and federal agencies to locate the owners of the unclaimed funds.
