In 2011, US state governments returned $2.25 billion of unclaimed property to their rightful owners. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), there is still $41.78 billion waiting to be claimed! With an average payout of $892 per claim, checking to see if any of that unclaimed property is yours is definitely worth 5 minutes of your time!
Unclaimed property includes savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed dividends or payroll checks, refunds, traveler’s checks, trust distributions, insurance payments or refunds, life insurance policies, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments, utility security deposits, contents of safe deposit boxes, and others accounts that have not been active within the past year. Companies are mandated to submit forgotten funds to the state, who then holds those funds until they can be returned to the consumer. Each state has its own individual process for returning lost funds and a website detailing that procedure. NAUPA has links to each state’s site, so consumers can easily check for lost property in each state they have resided.
I used the NAUPA site and explored the links for all the states in which I’ve lived. I was able to find a claim in the $10-$100 category from the electric company at an address I lived at in 2001 and a claim for my husband in the <$10 category from the auto insurance company we used in 2007. Although not exactly a windfall, I was still happy to find the few extra dollars. Claim redemption forms can be printed online and then mailed to the state treasury’s unclaimed property division. Once verified by the state, your check will be in the mail!
Next time you’re surfing the web, take a few minutes to check out the NAUPA site. It just might turn out to be a lucrative five minutes.
Twitter: @FrugalFinance1 and @seeitmarket
Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of her employer or any other person or entity.
