You May Have Unclaimed Money Just Waiting to Be Found

Have you ever checked to see if you have unclaimed money that is yours for the asking? It could be a deposit for a utility service that you never requested when you moved, interest from a bank account, a trust fund distribution, insurance payments or refunds, uncashed dividends or payroll checks, even the contents of safe deposit boxes.  It has been estimated that there is more than $41 billion in unclaimed money in the United States — money its owners don’t know about. Finding out if you may have left behind money, perhaps at an old address or in a state where you no longer live is easy. First, try the website for the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). Here you’ll find information about unclaimed property laws in every U.S. state, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. Each state’s department of treasury or revenue has a website at which you can find out whether you are owed money. You can find links to all state websites on the NAUPA site. However, as most states participate in MissingMoney, search there first to get results from all over the U.S. These searches don’t take much time and the results could put much-needed money in your pocket. NAUPA states that the average claim amounts to $892. Who couldn’t use that?