Tip for other players with slightly aging memory and long-forgotten $$$ resources

[arnaldo]

I’ve been meaning to msg. fellow AZB-ers about this for a while. A few months ago one of the players in our seniors’ billiards club steered a bunch of us to a very useful website.

Me and two others were surprised to find that we had some long-forgotten funds and some safe-deposited personal documents -- with various banks, insurance firms, etc. and were happy to claim and receive them (albeit understandingly questioning our declining memories). One of the players even recovered some lost/forgotten divorce-related property apparently turned over to his home state years ago.

I did about a dozen searches on the site, entering my own name and then names of some longtime friends and certain relatives, then apprised them of any notices filed by state governments in places they've lived. (Not all states participate in the service, but NY, Florida, and most others do.) Uncashed checks, forgotten security deposits, overpayments, unclaimed inheritances, etc. are definitely great to hear about.

Here's the gov't service website and what they say about the nature of their service. (I checked them out before doing any searches and it's definitely not a scam of any kind. I found no adverse comments or bad reviews anywhere.) I can well imagine that there are copycat simulations that are indeed scams.

https://www.missingmoney.com/en/Home/About (Use the Search option, seen at the top of the page.)
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"MissingMoney.com allows visitors to perform comprehensive searches for lost property that has been turned over to state governments. It is the only unclaimed property site endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA).

MissingMoney.com started in 1999 as a way to help state governments gather and track lost property such as un-cashed paychecks, stocks and bonds, and safe deposit box contents. Now the majority of states support the site by submitting their data and advocating for its claim verification and payment processes. More than $3 billion in unclaimed property was returned to rightful owners by states in 2015."
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The Search function seen at the top of the Home page is completely free to use.

See also the official website for NAUPA mentioned above: https://unclaimed.org/ They cover searches/recoveries of unclaimed funds and property in additional states.

I’d be truly amazed if this info doesn’t benefit more than a few AZB-ers and some of their friend and relatives. I’d be very gratified to hear that it helped some fellow players.

Arnaldo

 

[Frankenstroke]

Thanks. I found $11.14. Woohoo!

 

[Bob Jewett]

Thanks for the reminder. It is good to check every few years for unclaimed property. From Wikipedia:

The eleven states not using MissingMoney.com are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming.​

California has a state-run site that I have used before at: https://sco.ca.gov/upd_msg.html but some of the claims are small and too complicated to claim to deal with. I have an old Amex positive balance and an old stock dividend check on file. A minor (< $5) claim resulted in:

Your claim could not be processed electronically. To complete your claim, you must mail a paper claim along with any needed documentation required to prove your ownership by following the steps outlined on this page.​

 

[arnaldo]

Thanks for the reminder. It is good to check every few years for unclaimed property. From Wikipedia:

The eleven states not using MissingMoney.com are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming.​

California has a state-run site that I have used before at: https://sco.ca.gov/upd_msg.html but some of the claims are small and too complicated to claim to deal with. I have an old Amex positive balance and an old stock dividend check on file. A minor (< $5) claim resulted in:

Your claim could not be processed electronically. To complete your claim, you must mail a paper claim along with any needed documentation required to prove your ownership by following the steps outlined on this page.​

Roberto: That Wikipedia coverage needs to be updated by someone. New York is definitely a very active participating state . . . I know that, because I had searched a few weeks ago on behalf of one of my handicapped NY army buddies named George Smith and it kicked out over 200 listings. And it's quite likely that one or more additional states Wiki lists as non-participating, actually do presently participate now.

Btw, I learned during my numerous searches on the missingmoney site that including the state but omitting a specific city in that state yields additional results that the searcher would otherwise not have seen (likely because the entity that submitted to the state evidence of claimable funds or property, has moved within the state, or the addressee has moved within the state. Some logistical reason like that.)

Arnaldo