Unclaimed property

[wanaberetiree]

Can somebody explain what that means when you found your property on UNCLAIMED PROPERTY website, like for example this https://ucpi.sco.ca.gov/ucp/?

 

[GrayHare]

Can somebody explain what that means when you found your property on UNCLAIMED PROPERTY website, like for example this https://ucpi.sco.ca.gov/ucp/?

Often it means someone who owed you money was unable to find you to pay, so they sent the payment to the state to hold.

Some care should be taken. For example, if you believe a debtor owes you $1000, but the debtor's opinion is they owe you only $100, they might send the $100 to the state. If you claim that $100 from the state the original debtor can argue you accepted the lesser amount as full payment.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I found two records with my name and address one for $137.44 and the other for $1

One from Travelzoo and another from a newspaper


Should I claim them ?

 

[Sunset]

Yes claim them.

Companies often cannot find the person they owe money to and frankly don't spend years looking, instead after the money has collected interest (or been used freely as capital expenditures) they send it to the State as required by law.

Old bank accounts , brokerage accounts are another common reason.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I found the cable company owes my dad about $100.

He passed away 10 years ago. Honestly, I don’t want to bother with it.

 

[brucethebroker]

While scanning a Midwest unclaimed property site a few years ago, I found the name of a friend's wife. After I informed them, she claimed a decade old re-reimbursement check from a past state gov. employer-$247.00!!

 

[jollystomper]

It is worth going to directly to the state website for unclaimed property, for states you lived or worked in, to see if there is anything there. I have not found anything for myself, but have found over $2K total for our kids and a few relatives.

 

[Lewis Clark]

While scanning a Midwest unclaimed property site a few years ago, I found the name of a friend's wife. After I informed them, she claimed a decade old re-reimbursement check from a past state gov. employer-$247.00!!

Did your friend's wife give you a percentage as a finder's fee? : )

 

[imoldernu]

Thanks for the reminder... Many years ago, I searched, and found my name and some accounts, but for whatever reason, never followed through.
I just looked now, and found three accounts... one for dividends under $100, and 2 others for over $100 accounts that I think were for life insurance policies that my mom took out for me when I was a kid... probably between 1936 and 1940. The address was for the house where I was born, and lived for the first 17 years of my life.
It was on the State of Rhode Island Unclaimed Property website.

The site works very well, as it begins with requiring only the first and last name... and goes from there. It took about 5 minutes to complete the simple form, and submit. I received an EMail back immediately, saying that my claim was being processed.

Now I have to go back and check on the 13 states that we have lived in since then. No luck for jeanies' name, either under mine or her maiden name.

This bit about unclaimed property is not a joke... Here's a quote from the state of Illinois web page webpage....

The State Treasurer is holding 2.9 billion dollars in unclaimed funds for Illinoisans. The State holds these lost funds until they are claimed by either the original owner or their heirs. Property is returned at no cost with the proper identification.

And here's the email I received from R.I. state. (minus the details)

Thank you for submitting your claim with MissingMoney.com. The claim details below are provided for your reference. The State has your claim information and will contact you if any other information is needed. If you do NOT receive your check or do NOT hear from the state within a few weeks, you can contact the State at the information shown at the bottom of this email.

 

[swakyaby]

My brother said he looked up all his siblings' names on the missing money website, and my name showed up. It turned out to be a decades old last paycheck from a summer job at an amusement park. The amount was quite small.

 

[steelyman]

I've dealt with unclaimed property of others through several states' offices, all have been helpful and try to make the process relatively easy. You'll be asked to provide proof of residency and other means of identification.

One thing I was told is not to assume that once you've identified property that you are done, especially in the case of a recent death. It takes a while for assets to trickle down (escheated, I think is the term) through to the states and is not continually updated.

Since a basic search for property is easy and free, it's not too much of a hassle to recheck on an infrequent basis.

 

[mountainsoft]

A few years ago my uncle tracked down some unclaimed property for my grandfather. It was a few thousand dollars of which I received a couple hundred from the distribution among surviving children.

Inspired by this message thread, I just did a search for my dad and discovered two properties I "think" are his worth about $480. He died 28 years ago, so I submitted as much documentation as I have (his birth and death certificate, and my birth certificate). I don't know if that's enough information to claim the property, but it will be interesting to see where it goes. It's not big money, but it's fun to find long lost treasures.

 

[REWahoo]

A couple of years ago one of my nephews was looking through the state's unclaimed property list and found $100,000 under his mom's name. Turns out my brother had a life insurance policy and they were unable to locate her when he died in 2004. They may have sent her multiple letters but she has some mental issues and may have thrown them away.

 

[Omalley]

I managed Megacorp's unclaimed property for a bit, and similar to REWahoo's story above at times the amount escheated to the states could be substantial. Once sent in seven figures related to an investment account for a deceased individual. Some distantly related family member will be quite surprised someday.

 

[Choices]

Found $80 for my SIL last month. He did offer me a finders fee. I refused it...

 

[gwraigty]

Inspired by this message thread, I just did a search for my dad and discovered two properties I "think" are his worth about $480. He died 28 years ago, so I submitted as much documentation as I have (his birth and death certificate, and my birth certificate). I don't know if that's enough information to claim the property, but it will be interesting to see where it goes. It's not big money, but it's fun to find long lost treasures.

A few years back I found some unclaimed money from my late father. I had to contact the estate administrator to claim the money on my behalf. When I tried to claim using the means that you're trying, I received a letter from the state saying that only the estate executor/administrator could claim. It worked out in the end.

 

[Brat]

I just found $ that Costco owed me!

 

[swakyaby]

A bank posted $0.31 to the state site for my deceased mother for unpaid interest. I guess there's no minimum amount that can be posted.

 

[DFDubb]

I have a few grand sitting out there. It's from a gas company that we have a lease with on a former piece of property that we still own the mineral rights for, is still active, and we still receive payments on. It's sort of odd that they would ever claim that they could not locate us to pay. They manage to locate me every year to pay me otherwise and send tax documents to? The big problem for us is now the state. I obviously want the money, but the amount of paperwork they require to get it is just silly and absurd.

Our problem is that we owned this property together, but bought it before we were married and as such, all of the paperwork documenting our ownership, is in my wife's maiden name. It's not enough that we can prove ownership of the property, provide identity verification, produce the gas lease, etc....no, they need all sorts of stuff that we don't have documenting when her last name was changed. I cannot remember what all they asked us to do to prove when/why/how her name was changed, but it was a list that was front and back of a sheet of paper. It was so silly that even if we were flat broke and needed the money, we never would've been able to produce all of the documentation they required. I mean, the name change due to marriage goes through the state, they can't simply look that up? Obviously they can, but won't.

Ended up just giving up. I would love a couple extra grand in my pocket, but it's not enough $ to spend weeks trying to track down all the paperwork they asked for. All of this over a legal name change due to a marriage still in the same state LOL.

 

[exnavynuke]

Thanks for this thread. Just found a bit over $600 that's almost certainly mine here, and an undisclosed amount in NY where I used to live.

 

[NgineER]

Found $50 from a decade and a half ago... Sweet - enough for a decent dinner out.

 

[nwsteve]

We found nearly 5k from a demutualization payment for a life insurance policy my deceased Mom had. She would have had no idea. There were also several additional 100 for utility deposits and the like.
When I was executing my Mom's estate, I came across a check list of activities an Executor should follow--one of the top items was to check unclaimed property for all states where the deceased lived.

 

[MichaelB]

I just got off the phone with my brother - there are two entires worth $2k in his name on that list. Sweet ..

 

[TrvlBug]

A bank posted $0.31 to the state site for my deceased mother for unpaid interest. I guess there's no minimum amount that can be posted.

I just checked on my maiden name...one of my family members is owed $.02.

 

[KCGeezer]

Ha! DW has 4. $1.68 on one, one just says over $50. Who says hanging out on the internet is a waste of time?