Found Money: Reclaiming Lost Assets.
How to Search for Unclaimed Property.

How to Go About 
Reclaiming Lost Assets

First, make a list of every state in which you've ever lived and all the jobs you've ever held. Include all the names you've ever used. Write down the maiden names of your wife, mother, grandmother, granddaughter or other female relatives? Write down common misspellings of all your names.

Next, make a list of all your deceased relatives and any names they may have used. Include, if known, their social security numbers and date of birth.  Start compiling birth/marriage/death certificates, social security numbers, anything that could prove identity and ancestry.

Then go to the unclaimed property division, usually located within the Department of Revenue or Treasury, of every state where you, other members of your family or your deceased relatives have lived. You'll find a complete listing of all the states' Unclaimed Property Divisions in the right hand column of this page. 

Each state holds millions and even billions of dollars in abandoned funds: New York state alone is holding over 5 billion dollars just in bank accounts and security deposits, and California holds over 3 billion dollars.

Because many states only list property for one, two or three years, we suggest that you ALSO write a letter to the state requesting a more thorough search. Include ALL of the names, misspellings, etc., that you've written down. 

Also, inquire directly of any companies in which you, your family or your deceased relatives ever owned stock. While laws require that companies turn over abandoned stocks to the state, not all companies comply. 

Watch The Media  The holders of the unclaimed assets often make serious efforts to locate the owners via radio, TV and newspaper ads as well as direct mail,. Some go so far as to set up booths at carnivals and malls. We've even seen notices at turnpike tollbooths.  While many states publish newspaper advertisements listing the names of people who have money coming to them, most states advertise only the names of people whose property they received during that year. If you check the list and don’t find your name, keep searching. 

"....But the $112,000 was his. He was dumbfounded. How could anybody have so much money without knowing it? The state explained the money came from an old bank stock. And that jogged his memory...." MSNBC's Dateline program "Show Me The Money

Go beyond state records to look for money not turned over to the state:

Retirement benefits and Pensions. Go over your list of previous jobs. If you worked at a company for at least five years, you may be entitled to retirement benefits. Contact the company to find out. Even if you worked for a company that subsequently went bankrupt, don't give up. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp provides access to a directory of nearly 10,000 people owed a total of $19 million from terminated pension plans. To date, 1,745 pensioners have successfully claimed over $5 million in benefits, with awards ranging from a few dollars to more than $100,000, averaging about $4,000 per person found. For those who find their name in the directory, the site offers details for filing a claim.

Social Security Benefits  The Social Security Administration is holding $75 million dollars in un-cashed benefit checks.  The Social Security Administration's Toll-Free Number

Veterans Benefits  If you had a relative who served in the military from as far back as the Civil War, you can try the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. It stores thousands of disability accounts and benefit packages for returning military personnel who never collected.

Railroad Benefits  Only 14% of railroad retirees have had their spouse or heirs claim their life insurance policy.  
Railroad Retirement Survivor Benefits
Railroad Retirement Board "Help" Line

Union benefits. 95% of union members have a group life insurance policy that is paid by their employer and has never been claimed. Did you work at a union job for more than five years?  If so, you may be vested in a pension plan and even have a small life-insurance policy. Contact the local or regional office of the union to find out.

Savings Bonds  The United States Treasury is holding $1.3 billion dollars in savings bonds issued before 1949 that have never been redeemed. What to do when a bond owner has died (Series EE).  For series I   What to do about lost, stolen or destroyed bonds.

Internal Revenue Refunds  At the end of 1999, IRS held over 102,000 1998 income tax refund checks returned as "undeliverable" by the post office.  The total amount of those checks: $72 million. The previous year, $63 million worth of checks went undelivered. Add to those figures the BILLIONS of dollars owed the public in the form of UNCASHED checks and you have a STAGGERING SUM of money which could be collected.  If you happen to be holding a refund check that is over a year old, you must apply to the IRS for a replacement.  If you didn't receive a previous year's refund check, you can deduct the amount from subsequent years' taxes owed.  If you don't owe taxes, then write your nearest IRS office and ask them to resend you the check to your new address. The best way to contact the IRS is in writing.  Go to the IRS website for your nearest IRS office.

Bank accounts and utility deposits. It's possible you may have left  town without closing your bank account or asking utility companies to return deposits.  Contact the bank(s) and utility company(s) directly.  Guide to Finding Lost Bank Accounts (PDF Format) from Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. If your bank has merged or been acquired, your account may well have been transferred to a successor bank or funds may have been insured against loss by government regulators such as the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and NCUA (National Credit Union Administration). 
National Credit Union Administration
Independent federal agency supervising and insuring federal and some state-chartered credit unions
A listing of National Association of Federal Credit Union members.  
Find out what happened to your bank if it was renamed or acquired.
FDIC Directory of Banks

Life-insurance benefits. According to industry experts, more than 25 percent of all life-insurance policies go uncollected. Search a deceased relative’s canceled checks for the name of an insurance company or agent, then contact that company.  ClaimFinders.com charges a $150 upfront fee and 10% of the take.  UnclaimedAssets.com provides names and addresses of insurance companies.  Some insurance companies have searchable databases of unclaimed funds on their websites: New York Life Unclaimed Funds Finder

Money from real estate. You cannot assume that a deceased relative’s property was sold for delinquent taxes. Some property is listed on tax rolls for years before being sold, and any money that exceeded the tax bill would have been sent to the state while waiting for heirs to claim it. Check with both the state and local governments to find out.

Don't overlook your own real estate. The Federal Housing Administration is sitting on $60 - $65 million dollars in mortgage insurance refunds owed to borrowers who paid off their FHA home loans early.  If you ever had a HUD/FHA insured mortgage, you may be eligible for a refund on part of your insurance premium or a share of the earnings. HUD Refund Form   

Safe Deposit Boxes Thousands of safe deposit boxes go unclaimed every year after the death of the owner. If the location of the box is unknown, or if the bank branch has closed, recovery is made difficult if not impossible. Time is of the essence as abandoned boxes are subject to being opened and the contents sold at auction. If you don't know where to start looking, MissingAssets.com claims to be able to help for a small fee.

Frequent-flier miles. Many airlines allow an heir to claim a deceased relative’s frequent-flier miles. Some airlines have a three-year limitation. Check the deceased relative’s credit card statements or  travel agent for an account number.

Traveler's Checks  American Express enjoys a float of $3.8 billion dollars on un-cashed traveler’s checks. Purchasers should contact the bank or private issuer where the checks were purchased.  Travelers checks are allowed the longest dormancy of all assets, typically fifteen years from the date of issue.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Trust Accounts  Tribal Trust Accounts "....11 million acres of land are held in trust for over 387,000 beneficiaries via the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) system. More than $300 million annually from agricultural and oil leases, mining and water rights, rights-of-way and timber sales is collected by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for distribution to owners...."

Unclaimed Asset Check List

Read the District of Columbia's Why Would You Have Unclaimed Property?

Tips for Treasure Hunters

Fortune Hunter, 21st Century Style

Unclaimed Funds Databases Let You Do "Do It Yourself" Searches for Free.

UnclaimedAssets.com  ."Supersite" Many excellent resources. 

• Bureau of Public Debt: $5.9 billion - Unredeemed U.S. Savings Bonds

• Internal Revenue Service: $72 million - Undeliverable 1998 income tax refunds

• Social Security Administration: $500 million annually in uncashed benefit checks

• U.S. Postal Service: $25+ million/year - Uncashed Postal Money Orders

• FDIC: $400 million - Unclaimed deposits from failed banks

• NCUA: $200 million - Unclaimed deposits from failed credit unions

• HUD: $60 million - Mortgage Insurance Premium refunds & Distributive Shares

• Office of Personnel Management: $? billions - Unclaimed retirement benefits

• Railroad Retirement Board: $800 million - Unclaimed retirement benefits

• Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp: $60 million - Unclaimed pension benefits

• Veterans Benefits Administration: $? Billions in unclaimed benefits

• Securities & Exchange Commission: 3 million lost securities accounts

• Dept. of the Interior: $450 million - Unclaimed Individual Indian Monies

• Financial Management Service: $200 million - Unclaimed Moneys Trust Fund

• Bank of Canada: Searchable database of 770,000 dormant accounts worth $132 million

• British Columbia Ministry of Finance: $30 million held under the Unclaimed Money Act

• Swiss Bankers Association: Dormant Swiss accounts & proceeds from settlement of a class action

• Austria Bank: $40 million settlement of a class action lawsuit against Bank Austria and Creditanstalt

• Treasury of the Republic of Poland: Dormant bank accounts and insurance policies

• Holocaust Claims Processing Office: Dormant accounts, unpaid insurance policies, looted art

• British Dept. of Trade & Industry: Property confiscated by British Custodian for Enemy Property

• British Embassy: Holdings of Nazi gold by Bank of England

• Swedish Bankers Association: Dormant Swedish accounts and seizures from WW II

• Simon Wiesenthal Center: Unclaimed accounts and property of Holocaust victims

• French Bankers Association: 3.2 billion FRF in restitution and reparation for Holocaust victims

• Australia: Unclaimed moneys held in eight states/territories

• New Zealand: Unclaimed Monies Act accounts

• Israel: Bank Leumi dormant Holocaust-era accounts

• Czech Republic: Property confiscated by occupation authorities

Unclaimed Assets

The National Unclaimed Property Database

Unclaimed Life Insurance

New York Life Unclaimed Funds Finder

Canadian Assets Recovery

Canadian banks are required to transfer to the Bank of Canada all unclaimed bank balances maintained in Canada in Canadian currency that have been inactive for a period of 10 years. As custodian for unclaimed bank balances, the Bank of Canada responds to general inquiries and claims, and makes payments to those persons entitled to receive the proceeds.  Unclaimed balances search form

Missing Assets and Unclaimed Property in Canada

Unclaimed Dividends from Bankruptcy, Canada

Law Society of British Columbia: Unclaimed Trust Money

Unclaimed Property Office, Province of British Columbia

The Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia "....operates under provincial law to protect the legal rights and financial interests of children, to provide assistance to adults who need support for financial and personal decision making, and to administer the estates of deceased and missing persons where there is no one else able to do so...."

Unclaimed Assets in the UK

London's Financial Times reports there is a "sea of unclaimed assets sloshing around the financial system," very conservatively estimated in 1999 to be worth £77 billion.

Unclaimed Assets in the UK

Dealing with U.S. Treasury Savings Bonds

What to do when a bond owner has died (Series EE).  For series I  

What to do about lost, stolen or destroyed bonds.

Articles About Unclaimed Assets

“Dateline” decided to check out California’s unclaimed property Web site, since we figured more famous people live in California than anywhere else. And sure enough we came up with a veritable who’s who in Hollywood. We found big names like Jack Nicholson. He has just more than $70 coming to him; Steve Martin has $155; Dustin Hoffman close to $300; Mel Gibson, more than $400; Kevin Costner, more than $500; Kathleen Turner more than $600; Michelle Pfeiffer has over $900; Daryl Hannah close to $2,000 and Paul Newman close to $3,000. Representatives for these stars said their clients never knew about the money until “Dateline” called.     

States Play 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' With Unclaimed Cash — Sort Of  "....Most individual claims are less than $300, according to NAUPA. But sometimes unsuspecting heirs find they’ve hit the jackpot.

"There’s the woman in Nevada who saw her deceased father’s name listed in a newspaper ad placed by the state’s Unclaimed Property Division. Turned out a bank was holding $80,000 from his social security checks, which the woman and her sister used to start a clothing business. Or the farmer’s widow in North Dakota, so destitute she borrowed money to bury her husband, and then learned he had hidden $50,000 in stock certificates in a grain elevator on their farm....."

Jewish Genealogists Gear Up to Help Identify Heirs to Assets of Holocaust Victims

Louisiana lottery corporation announces
unclaimed prizes

Article: Lost Funds Aren't a Lost Cause

Unclaimed Assets Await Rightful Owners

Article: Unclaimed Money (Worth Online)

Lucky 46,000 can lay claim to $17 million: State looks for owners of long-forgotten cash, assets and valuables

"Until they read their names in the paper, most of them won't know they have these assets, which range from $50 to the $147,534 the state has for a Detroiter who won't talk to reporters until she gets her money."   

MSNBC's "Show me the money": You may have hidden treasure without even knowing it. Find out how to dig it up

"Ed Anderson couldn’t believe it. The Salt Lake City retiree was convinced he knew where all his money was. So he was skeptical when his daughter-in-law saw his name posted on a local television show about unclaimed property. Curious, Anderson got in touch with the state.  'Originally a letter suggested it was around $7,000,' he says, 'and I said ‘well, that’s good.’”
Thrilled as he was, Anderson couldn’t figure out where the money came from. The mystery only deepened when the postman rang twice.
“And then another letter came a short time later and it indicated $112,000,” he says, “and I thought, I wonder if they just made a mistake?” 

"But the $112,000 was his. He was dumbfounded.  How could anybody have so much money without knowing it? The state explained the money came from an old bank stock. And that jogged his memory.
       “My father had bought some bank stock from a bank back, maybe back in the ’50s,” he says.
       And that bank merged with another, which merged with another. Anderson thinks the banks and his father, who died in 1986, lost track of each other. And while stocks can go up or down in value over time, Anderson’s stock kept growing. Eventually, the money was turned over to the state, where it sat until a stunned Anderson claimed it 12 years after his father’s death.

Unclaimed Assets Software

Software:   A Do-it-Yourself Search for Unclaimed Money and Property Program

Books That Purport to Help You Uncover Unclaimed Assets

Book: Assets Unknown How to find money
you didn't know you had!  Site contains true Stories about real people uncovering real lost money.

Book: North American Guide to Unclaimed Riches " Would you like to claim your super share of the $19,000,000,000 in lost money that your government holds for you? Would you like to quickly learn how to get your share of the huge sums of money being given away--free for the asking? Now you can!"

Book: Unclaimed Assets

How to Find Unclaimed Money Secrets Revealed.