Unclaimed Property

Did you know that items you lose/leave behind may be turned in to the State Treasury? In fact, a lot of lost property is required to be turned in. And the Treasury office might keep it for quite a while, waiting for you to claim it. On the other hand, the states do auction items off after awhile to raise money.

And we’re not just talking $1 here or there. Some items in the auctions sell for thousands of dollars. State Treasury Offices can have as much as a $Billion+ in unclaimed property that people have lost and never claimed. It can be physical property or something like an Insurance Refund (my uncle found $120+) or a Payroll (cousin had $28) or other such things. Each state has a search engine where you look up your name (or a deceased family members name when searching for the estate). If you don’t find anything there, make sure you try calling the State Treasurer’s office too. Not every state published everything in their possession–some take things down over time or don’t post big items, etc. Then usually you just have to file your claim. Check it out! Great places to start are M issingMoney and NAUPA; they’re working with a bunch of states at once.