Unclaimed Property

Don't be fooled by anyone or any website that tells you that simply plugging your name in to a search box is the beginning and end of an unclaimed property search.

To truly perform a thorough search for your assets, you need to know a little bit about the unclaimed property law in your state. In fact that should be plural, unclaimed property laws, because each type of property has different laws governing when a holding company must turn it over to it's new custodian, the state. Obviously if the state isn't holding it when you search, you won't find it in their records.

So, to familiarize yourself with the different potential types of sources for unclaimed money. Here's a list of just a few:

dormant savings and checking accounts

payroll checks

stocks

credits

safe deposit box contents

found utility deposits

uncashed money orders

unused gift certificates

securities

unclaimed security deposits

cash or property like cashiers checks

mineral royalty payments

court deposits

lost cash dividends

unclaimed insurance benefits

As was stated, the laws dictating when these various types of property must be turned over to the state vary between both the type of account and the state in which the account resides.

Beyond the issue of getting false negatives simply because funds may not have been turned over to the state, you may also not get any search results if the state's unclaimed property division is sitting on their hands and simply hasn't added the record to their database. As much as they might like to, each state doesn't just have an unclaimed property monkey sitting their waiting to add this information to the system, so it gets done rather infrequently.

For further details on how to get around these obstacles (and many more), something most unclaimed property web sites don't even begin to help you with, head over to UnclaimedMoney.net and make your search an educated one.