Unclaimed Property Blog

Unclaimed money has been forgotten but not lost; its lying somewhere in the coffers of the state government waiting to be claimed. Most of the state governments have taken concrete steps to ensure that their citizens are not deprived of the hard earned money which belongs rightfully to them.

The steps taken by the U.S. Government consist of:

The mound of unclaimed cash is far from depleated as personal memos, outreach programs and other methods of reaching every possible American is proving less effective. More forgotten cash is being recovered everyday than what is returned to the owners after much effort. In order to intensify the mission, various states in the U.S. are now listing unclaimed money in newspapers.

Newspapers have a very wide reach and are read by almost every American. If the campaign to return the unclaimed money rides on the intense penetration of the newspapers, then the states hope that it will result in increased awareness about the issue. Also, newspapers are helpful in reaching to the population staying in remote locations and not having internet and other publicity facilities.

Most of the U.S. states are eyeing the unclaimed money lying in their coffers to fix their budget deficits. States are always on the lookout for the sources of additional revenue generation, and unclaimed property is quickly becoming one of the few sources of filling the void in the budget.

The center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the combined state budget deficit over the next two and a half years is likely to be about $350 billion. This will account for about 20% of the state budget.

Lost money, also known as unclaimed cash or unclaimed money, is becoming a cause of concern for many American states. The states are trying their best to help citizens in locating lost money.

Most of the state governments are sitting over billions of unclaimed cash and are willing to return it to the owners. Every U.S. state, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Quebec and British Columbia have unclaimed property programs that are dedicated to finding owners of lost and forgotten assets.

Finding lost money is one way to increase wealth. How to increase wealth is an obvious question in everybody’s mind. All our endeavors throughout the day are not only to earn money but also to create and increase wealth over a period of time. We try different approaches to increase wealth. These include savings, investments and cutting down on expenditure.

A major source that may help us in increasing our wealth often go unnoticed. Most of us are not even aware that it could bring us some money. This source is called as lost money, forgotten money or unclaimed cash.

“Lost cash? Me? … Never!” may be your reaction if suggested to search for any lost cash lying unclaimed in your name. However, the brief online search may prove otherwise, as almost every American has at least one form of unclaimed cash or property lying on his/her name.

Most of the Americans have forgotten small amounts incurred to them from closed bank accounts, dividend pay-offs, insurance claims, tax refunds, utility deposits, oil royalties, wages, etc., which they did not bother to collect. The unclaimed cash ranging from a few dollars to a few millions is dormant in the custody of various state treasurers. In spite of the states’ rigorous efforts, there are still many citizens who are not aware of how to recover the lost cash.

$35 billion of unclaimed money isn’t a small amount. Many economies would be willing to have this amount at their disposal. Surprisingly, this huge cache is lying dormant with U.S. in the form of unclaimed cash.

In spite of the relentless efforts by U.S. State Treasurer, less numbers of people are turning up to claim unclaimed cash in their name. Though, the number is on the rise owing to a massive drive taken up by the states, the heap of unclaimed cash is reducing at much less speed than expected.

Unclaimed cash and property has been on a systemic rise in U.S.. The amounts of unclaimed cash have grown to new heights and today U.S. government is trying its best to hand over $32.877billion to its owners. This mammoth amount of over 117 million accounts is currently being safeguarded by state treasurers and other agencies.

The government has been creating multiple platforms to reach out to its citizens. To date, they have sent out thousands of personal memos, notices and messages to the people across the state.

Should any unclaimed money go to releaving the state’s budget deficit? Most of the U.S. states are caught in a peculiar situation in which there is unmanageable budget deficit on one hand, and hoards of unclaimed cash on the other. This has set the brain-storming among the U.S. think tank. They advocate that these unclaimed funds can be effectively utilized to fill in the budgetary void.

In spite of the relentless efforts by the authorities, claimants are not coming forward in expected numbers to fetch unclaimed cash in their names; it is likely to remain dormant for long. It will make good economic sense to not let it idle till the claimants come forward.

Unclaimed cash and property have been the prime concern for U.S. state governments. Though the property and cash is safe in the government treasury, it is not supposed to be there. People have started responding and acquiring unclaimed cash and property. They are claiming what has been rightfully theirs on a more aggressive note.

Last year, Michelle Bixler of Pennsylvania received her $35,000 check that was owed to her nine years back as an insurance amount. Another St. Louis citizen got his $1.6 million back. People who have no unclaimed cash in their name can even retrieve unclaimed cash and property of their parents name by claiming as legal heirs. This example was set by Russ Johnson who could claim his parents $2,985.65 that he was completely unaware of.