You or someone in your family or a friend probably have money being held by the government. Any company or business that has money belonging to someone else and who can’t (or simply doesn’t want to) locate that individual, can deposit the money with the Office of the Secretary of State in that particular State. These can be bank accounts you forgot about, a few shares of stock someone gave you as a gift, insurance policies, uncashed checks, deposits you paid when you signed up for utilities or other services, or a panoply of other sources. This factzoid will tell you how to check and see if you (or someone you know) has money waiting.
First, note that there a many companies that will do this for you and charge you a fee. You don’t have to employ them, because generally the Secretaries of State have made their recovery systems user-friendly. On the internet, use search terms "unclaimed assets" "secretary of state" and the specific state. So, for example, I lived in California for a long time. I would type in: "unclaimed assets" "secretary of state" California. Then (unless you want to pay for help) disregard all of the findings that come up referring you to companies. Look for the website with the ".gov" behind it. This will be the specific state’s own website. Usually you can easily find the link to "search for assets" or "claim assets". Type in your name and see what comes up. If you have a common name, you may have to put in a specific city, or perhaps your social security number. The procedure for making a claim for the asset is usually very clear, right there on the website, and you can do it yourself. No strings attached — They will just send you the money if you verify your identity to their satisfaction.
Here are some helpful hints:
- Try under all possible names. Current name, maiden name, nicknames, middle names, initials and last name, and common misspellings of your name
- Try in each state where you’ve ever resided or done business
- Look for the names of your parents, brothers and sisters, or rich relatives you might inherit from.
- You can search under names of people that are still alive, or that are deceased. If they are deceased, the person entitled to their estate assets can claim the money in their place!
- You can go to one site to do a general search: missingmoney.com They don’t have all of the states, and their records can be incomplete, so don’t rely solely on this source. One thing this site is especially good for is to check to see if you might have money that the FEDERAL government is holding, such as tax refunds,
I didn’t find anything under my own name, but I found $500 in my deceased parents’ names that I claimed, and I located $8,000.00 for some friends in desperate need of cash who were losing their home — that found money let them get current and keep their house. If you have time on your hands, search under the names of celebrities — Jane Fonda has stock in Toys-R-Us that she bought for her son, and the State of California apparently doesn’t know where she is. Ha-ha — Right! Good luck searching!
