Every year 20+ billion dollars goes unclaimed in the United States. Millions of Americans are owed this money but either don’t know it exists or don’t know how to find it.

Here are 7 things everyone needs to know about unclaimed money:

1 – ANYONE can have money owed to him or her!

Money that ends up in the unclaimed databases can come from many places including old bank accounts, savings bonds, inheritance, payroll checks, the list goes on and on. There are approximately 200 million people who are owed unclaimed money. Oprah stated 8 out of 9 families are owed unclaimed money.

The money may be from a source you were never even aware existed like a savings bond from when you were a child or an inheritance.

The government will not look for the owners of unclaimed money. They will happily keep the money and borrow from it or earn interest on it for as long as they can. This is apparent from the fact that Microsoft, Ryan Seacrest, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Benicio Del Toro are all owed money.

Unless you do a search, don’t assume you don’t have unclaimed money.

2 – Your money may be under a different name

When you do an unclaimed money search the money may be listed under a variation of your name. For example: if your name is William M Smith the money may be listed under Bill M Smith, B M Smith, W M Smith, etc.

Depending on the source of the funds and the way the name was listed on that account the money may be listed under a variation of your legal name.

The money may also be listed under the name of a co-signer on the account. If the account was not solely in your name, it might very well be under the name of the person who shared the account(s) with you.

3 – It helps to know past addresses

When you perform an unclaimed money search you enter a name and then are given a list of results that match the entered name. The results will include some or all of the following information: account number, name on account, last known address on account and amount owed. Knowing the past addresses of the person whose name you are searching is helpful in identifying which accounts actually belong to that person.

4 – You may be owed money that was reported outside your state

If you have ever lived outside your current state of residence or have done any business with any company(s) outside your state, the money may be reported in the state where the company existed.

For example: If you lived in California your whole life but had an insurance policy with a company in New York and they had no address on record, the money owed from the policy would be listed in the New York state database not California.

Inheritance is often reported in the state of residence for the deceased, since it is unclaimed chances are the heir’s address is unknown.

Most states have their own searchable database, but remember, searching your own state is not enough.

5 – Make sure to complete all steps of the claims process

The claims process will vary depending on the type of account. Typically driver’s license, social security or birth certificate are required. If you are an heir additional paperwork such as death certificate and other executor documents may be required.

If you search a good quality database, they will provide you the claim instructions. Make sure to include all information and documentation requested. If you omit forms or required data your claim may not be processed and they will send a request for more information which will delay receipt of your money.

6 – You can search for family and friends

Databases allow you to search multiple names. You can search the names of your family and close friends to see if they are owed money. Since most people are unaware this money is sitting around, most have not searched their name to see how much is owed to them.

While researching for this article I found $400 owed to my mom from 2 different accounts!

7 – Unclaimed tax refunds will not be found

Tax refunds owed from prior tax years will not be in the databases, UNLESS you have filed for the year(s) you are owed money. You have up to 3 years to submit for a tax refund. After that time expires you will no longer be able to claim your tax refund. That means 2003-2005 taxes can be filed for a tax refund but entitlement to 2002 tax refunds expired on April 17, 2006.

So, if you are owed money from 2003-2005 tax years make sure to file your taxes for those years to claim your tax refund.

Nicole Anderson offers more information about unclaimed money at http://www.cashunclaimed.com. Cash Unclaimed’s database covers all state and federal databases, has Name Match technology, which will search variations of your name to ensure nothing is overlooked, and offers unlimited name searches to members. Click on http://www.cashunclaimed.com for a free money search and locate your missing money today!

The first place many people go to when they hear about the billions of dollars of unclaimed funds is the Internet. There are many sites devoted exclusively to helping find unclaimed money or property. All you need to do is search by name and state and within moments you’ll discover whether you are going to soon be the recipient of money you didn’t know you have.

If you take this step it’s always a good idea to also search for the names of family members. This includes anyone who is deceased. If you are the heir to someone’s estate, and you find lost money or property in their name, you can then claim that money yourself. There is a bit more to the claim’s process in this case, but it’s well worth the work when you think about the end result – extra money in your pocket.

It’s very easy to be skeptical of the idea that you have money out there that you didn’t know you have. The simple truth though is that every day money is overlooked by individuals, and that money eventually is sent to the state for safe holding. Although some agencies will send out notices of forgotten funds before they are transferred to the government, most agencies just don’t have the monetary resources to do that. Instead, they quietly release the funds to the government and the owner has to do the legwork themselves to then find their funds.

Considering that there are an estimated $300 billion in unclaimed funds being held by state and federal governments, it’s easy to see why 7 out of 10 people will find something that belongs to them. Although it’s not always the million dollars that we all dream of, a few hundred or thousand dollars can really make a difference in someone’s life.

Chances are once you find unclaimed money or property for yourself you’ll want to help others do the same. Think about all your relatives, friends and acquaintances and see if you can use your new found detective skills to help them find a small fortune they never realized they had. They’ll love you for it.

20 million people have forgotten money sitting with a state government waiting to be claimed. Millions more have money awaiting them at the federal level. To find out how to earn a living by helping reunite them with their money, Click Here!

Recent efforts by the Connecticut State Treasurer’s “The Big List” program have handed over $110 million back to CT residents in just the last 8 years, but more money continued to come in than went out so the heaps of unclaimed property held by the government continue to grow. Due to the fact that new forgotten funds outpace the return rate, the odds of finding a claim for any given name get better all the time.

A lot of people wonder how unclaimed money could be real because the fact that across the country there are billions of dollars waiting to be discovered by the rightful owners simply boggles the mind. Why would these people abandon their money? Are they crazy? No, they’re just normal people, and it has been estimated that 7 out of every 10 Americans are due some type of claim!

So how is all this cash being abandoned without the owners realizing it? In most cases it is as simply as forgetting about a checking or savings account that wasn’t a primary account, or not providing a forwarding address to all the necessary people when a person moves. Additionally, the State Treasury’s website lists the following as common types of lost money in Connecticut:

“…un-cashed checks; deposits; stocks, bonds or mutual fund shares; travelers’ checks or money orders; life insurance policies; and safe deposit box contents…”

As these different types of accounts lay untouched past their dormancy periods (unique for each account type in each state), they are turned over to the state for safe keeping until the owner steps forward to claim them. So if the dormancy period on a given account doesn’t run out for another year or two, someone searching today will find now record of their missing money, even though it’s out there in pre-escheat, meaning the dormancy period has not expired. Additionally, states have no uniform law dictating when the records are actually added to their system so a person could theoretically search and find nothing, while the record is added the following day, week, month or year. The only way to be thorough about your search is to search regularly.

In addition to limiting themselves to one search, inexperience searchers often search only the state they live in, not knowing that there is the potential for unclaimed funds owed to them in states they’ve never lived in or even been to, for a variety of reasons such as employers’ corporate headquarters or insurance company headquarters.

The issues mentioned above, among others, can be worked around once people become educated on proper search tactics. Seeking the advice and guidance of experienced unclaimed asset finders often makes the difference in whether or not someone with limited knowledge in these matters finds all money owed to them or not.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Connecticut unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

Tax rebates are just one of the numerous examples of sources of New Jersey unclaimed money and property. Abandoned bank accounts, stocks, cash and mineral deposits, unclaimed insurance and retirement benefits, uncashed checks and even safe deposit bank contents all fall under New Jersey’s Unclaimed Property Law. All sorts of items have been found in the latter- autographs of historical figures like General George S. Patton and Mae West, an $80,000 Tiffany bracelet, a prosthetic leg and old animal bones have been collected from deposit box contents abandoned by residents of N.J.

People tend to lose track of their finances when they change addresses or jobs, get married, or pass-away. Mailed checks or notices can get returned to their senders when forwarding addresses aren’t left behind by the would be recipients. Under escheat laws, these abandoned financial assets are turned-over to the state after a certain period which varies from account type to account type, and state to state. The web site of the New Jersey State’s Division of Taxation says the following about unclaimed money and property:

“Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, all property, including any income or increment derived therefrom, less any lawful charges, whether located in this State or another state, that is held, issued, owing in the ordinary course of a holder’s business and has remained unclaimed by the owner for more than three years after it became payable or distributable is presumed abandoned.

At the time that an interest is presumed abandoned under this section, any other property right accrued or accruing to the owner as a result of the interest, and not previously presumed abandoned, is also presumed abandoned.”

Some 42,000 residents of the Garden State recently claimed $88.4 million in a single year, but there are still hundreds of millions of dollars to be claimed belonging to over 1,200,000 people. Each of the 1.2 million people are owed at least $50, but many are owed much much more. Atlantic City, N.J. is home to the annual Miss America pageant, but state residents should also look into something as, (if not more) beautiful- New Jersey unclaimed money.

“Liberty And Prosperity” is the state motto and everyone is indeed free to go check and do a search for unclaimed property and make themselves a bit more prosperous by getting back their lost money. It can be as simple as going on-line and doing an unclaimed money search using one’s name . The tricky part though is doing a thorough search, as it’s possible to overlook pre-escheat funds and unclaimed money in different states.

neUnclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for New Jersey unclaimed moy and missing money across the country.

“I didn’t know I had it.” says Leiland Osmond, after being reunited with $150 of his missing money in an Oklahoma unclaimed property outreach program at the State Fair. Oklahoma State Treasurer Scott Meacham says he’s not alone. “Obviously, a lot of people have lost money and don’t realize it.” says the Treasurer in a recent report by Oklahoma’s KSBI-TV. Visiting the fair paid-off for Osmond who plans to share his newly found money. “My grandchildren will take care of it.”

An extra $150 is enough to brighten anyone’s day, but in another report by NewsOK, a resident of Norman, Oklahoma made off with a lot more than that . The lucky unclaimed asset owner was reunited with $30,000 from some lost AT&T stocks he had forgotten about. According to Tim Allen, spokesman for the State Treasurer’s office, the stocks were sold by the State and the proceeds were place in the state’s Unclaimed Property Fund until the citizen found and claimed them.

Unclaimed properties are intangible financial assets (except for safe deposit box contents) that have been deemed ‘abandoned’ by their owners. State law requires these assets to be turned over to the state after a period of inactivity. According to the Oklahoma Department of Treasury website, “Evidence of this inactivity includes failure to cash a check, the return of a check or correspondence by the Post Office as undeliverable, or the absence of any communication from the owner.”

According to the General Provisions of Oklahoma’s Unclaimed Property Rules, qualifying ‘intangible property’ comes in the following forms:

(A) monies, checks, drafts, deposits, interests, dividends and income;

(B) credit balances, customer overpayments, gift certificates, security deposits, refunds,

credit memos, unpaid wages, unused airline tickets, and unidentified remittances.

(C) stocks and other intangible ownership interests in business associations;

(D) monies deposited to redeem stocks, bonds, coupons and other securities, or to make

distributions;

(E) amounts due and payable under the terms of insurance policies;

(F) amounts due and payable under the terms of mining or mineral leases; and

(G) amounts distributable from trusts or custodial funds established under a plan to provide health, welfare, pension, vacation, severance, retirement, death, stock purchase, profit sharing, employee savings, supplemental unemployment insurance, or similar benefits.

People lose track of these assets when they move and forget to leave behind a forwarding address resulting in lost and uncashed checks and the like. Death is also a common cause of financial assets being lost especially if there’s no will and the next of kin can’t be located. Most of the time, unclaimed property owners just plain forget about their finances in the rush of day to day living.

Residents of Oklahoma and other states should check and do an on-line unclaimed money search. They might just find out the government owes them money this time and not the other way around.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Oklahoma unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

Most people find it hard to believe that regular ID citizens have managed to just abandon $40 million, and that citizens across the nation have abandoned nearly $40 billion (yeah, with a “b”, billion), but believe it or not, the odds that any given person is owed unclaimed property are greater than the odds that they aren’t due a claim. The reason for this is that these forgotten funds come from so many different sources. According to the website of the Idaho State Tax Commission, the department responsible for handling these assets: “These include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, bank accounts, uncashed payroll checks, utility deposits, traveler’s checks, contents from deposit boxes, and more. Most of the assets are ones that people didn’t know they had or just forgot about, and sometimes they are worth thousands of dollars.”

In order for cash to be considered abandoned or “unclaimed”, it must lie dormant for a period of time that is specific to each state and type of asset. Idaho considered most types abandoned after 5 years of dormancy, though some are available to be claimed after only 1 year.

There are a number of reasons why money might go unclaimed, but it’s often as simple as not leaving a forwarding address for financial institutions or previous employers. If a piece of mail is returned to the sender, and the rightful owner doesn’t contact the seller within the dormancy period, the holder is required by law to hand the funds over to the state.

The problem Idaho has, like all other states, is reuniting lost money with its rightful owners. Despite state awareness efforts and popular media coverage, most people are still simply unaware of unclaimed money. Even those that are in the know generally don’t have a clue where to begin their search. There are a handful of people actively searching, but even those people don’t know all the methods they need to implement to maximize their chances of finding claims.

For the reasons stated above, Idaho now hold’s over $40 million in unclaimed money, and that figure is sure to grow, because more and more money is turned over to the state all the time and it outpaces the amounts returned to the citizens. For this reason, it is incredibly important that those who are serious about searching for forgotten funds, learn how professional finders locate these monies, and then put these same tactics in to action in their own searches. There are right ways to search, and wrong ways to search, and until people learn the difference there are a number of obstacles that can stand between them and their money.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Idaho unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

Increased efforts by the state to reunite lost money with the rightful owners have helped give back an average of $2.2 annually in recent years, but the vast majority still goes unreturned, as an average of $6.7 million is turned over to the state each year. This essentially means that the state’s fund grows by about $5 million annually. So while the State Treasurer provides no solid total, it’s reasonable to assume that they are holding at least tens of millions.

Upon first learning about unclaimed property, the big question most people have is – How could people possibly abandon that much money? There are a variety of reasons, but believe it or not there truly are tens of billions up for grabs across the country. More often than not, though, it’s as simple as not notifying everyone of a correct forwarding address. Once a check of some sort is returned to an asset holder, or a holder simply loses contact with the owner, it begins a “dormancy period”. The dormancy period is a time period which must pass before the monies are determined to be abandoned or “unclaimed”, and then handed over to the state for safekeeping.

There are a variety of types of accounts that can become unclaimed funds if left dormant for a long enough period of time, but the State Treasurer’s website lists the following as the most common: “savings accounts, checking accounts, unpaid wages or commissions, stocks, underlying shares, un-cashed dividends, customer deposits or overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, money orders, paid-up life insurance policies, un-cashed benefits checks, and gift certificates.” Each of these account types has it’s own unique dormancy period. In South Dakota, these periods range from 1 year to 15 years, depending on what kind of asset is being dealt with.

While most citizens are completely in the dark about missing money owed to people by the government, a few are aware of these funds. But even those that are aware generally have no clue how to properly search for them and take back what belongs to them. For starters, only a few unclaimed search sites have accurate records in their databases, and even fewer have somewhat recently updated records. With millions being turned over each year, spread across thousands of accounts, the state simply can’t update the records in real time, leaving people searching listings that are often very incomplete. This problem is multiplied when we factor in the varying dormancy periods which means that getting no results on day might be misleading if a particular asset isn’t due to be turned over to the state for another year, or number of years.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for South Dakota unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

According to a recent press release by the New Mexico’s Division of Taxation and Revenue, $98,038,643.58 in New Mexico unclaimed money is in the government’s hands and the money is just waiting to be claimed by owners who have lost track of their financial assets over the years. According to the government press release, “New Mexico Unclaimed Property includes security deposits for utilities, bond money, insurance proceeds, income tax refund checks that were undeliverable and property abandoned in safety deposit boxes.” Property from abandoned safety deposit boxes includes things like jewelry, comic books, old coins, other collector items and family heirlooms. New Mexico Unclaimed Property Law requires these assets to be handed-over to the state after 3-5 years of being ‘dormant’ or ‘inactive’.

There are 682,766 owners of New Mexico state unclaimed money and chances are, they don’t even know they’re missing money. Sometimes people move and forget to leave behind a forwarding address. This results in undelivered mail, which can include mailed checks or notices of inheritance or other financial documents. People also pass-away without letting their next of kin know about any financial assets they may have. There are several other reasons for assets getting lost and fact is, it’s happening everywhere in the U.S.- especially now with the fast-paced lifestyles most people are leading. It’s easy to forget about collecting last paychecks and retirement pensions when moving-on to something new in one’s life. Nationally, unclaimed funds now total roughly $35 billion spread-out among the 50 states and more is added to that each year!

In ten years’ time, over $130,000,000 unclaimed money in New Mexico was collected from banks, the IRS, and other financial institutions throughout the state. The state is required to advertise owners names in the local newspaper of the last known address of owner only once a year (every November), so this leaves a lot of room for unclaimed property owners in New Mexico to overlook their missing money. The last known address might not be where the owner resides anymore, or there can be errors in the address on the letters. Citizens should take the initiative and do an unclaimed money search in New Mexico and other states, for that matter. Odds are good that you just might be owed government unclaimed money in different states, especially if you’ve lived in or have relatives in several states.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for New Mexico unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

New Hampshire citizens are familiar with cold weather and their famous White Mountains, but they can hit the slopes of the mountains of cold hard cash if they simply educate themselves on how to locate and claim forgotten funds already owed to them. The first obstacle is simply learning about the existence of the phenomenon of unclaimed property. Sadly, most people are still unaware of the fact that there are tens of billions of dollars in state treasury departments across the nation, just waiting to be discovered. Beyond just knowing about these monies, people need to know where and how to search for them, or they could waste a lot of time and energy without getting any payoff.

The reasons unclaimed funds are often difficult to locate are numerous, but among the most common are the lack of knowledge of the searcher on which websites to use and how often they should search.

There are many different types of property that can become abandoned and considered “unclaimed”, but the state treasurer’s website lists the following as the most common: “Certificates of Deposit, Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, Gift Certificates, Refunds, Wages, Payroll, Salary, Commissions, Uncashed Checks, Death Benefits, Dividends, Insurance Payments, Money Orders, Paid-up Life Insurance Policies, Deposits, Demutualization Proceeds”. Each type of account can only be considered “unclaimed” (and turned over to the state) after it has been dormant for a specified period of time, which is unique among each type. These dormancy periods are typically 1 to 5 years in New Hampshire, depending on the account type.

Due to the fact that each account type has it’s own dormancy period, a person might search for money owed to them on a given day, when their account hasn’t been turned over to the state, so the state will have no record of it. Often times, people give up at this point, not realizing that their funds might be handed over to the state the following year, or even 5 years down the road. Additionally, the state’s records have to be manually updated by a human, so the accuracy of the records is questionable, because there isn’t someone adding records in real time.

All of the issues with when a claim actually gets listed in the state’s records won’t matter if a person doesn’t know where to search. Many people just search any site that has a search box, but very few of these sites have any accurate listings. Most of the “databases” are anything but. Choosing an unclaimed money site to run your searches from is key. Equally important is learning the search methods used by experts in the missing money field, and putting them to work in your own searches.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for New Hampshire unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

The total unclaimed funds being held by Indiana’s Office of the Attorney General is sure to grow, as lack of knowledge and skepticism continue to allow the 20,000 new accounts added each month to outpace the number of accounts reunited with the rightful owners. Whether it’s the perception that unclaimed cash is some sort of scam, or the idea that searching just once on any old site is all that needs to be done, the unclaimed property coffers of IN and the other 49 states will continue to grow, unless people begin to seek out the help of missing money experts to assist them in their search.

According to the Hoosier State’s unclaimed property division, some of the most common types of unclaimed assets include: “unclaimed wages or commissions; savings and checking accounts; stock dividends; insurance proceeds; underlying shares; customer deposits or overpayments; certificates of deposit; credit balances; refunds; money orders; and safe deposit box contents.”

It’s not secret that Indiana is one of those states that are home to the headquarters of many large corporations that have locations across the country. What does this mean to people searching for lost money? It means that even people who don’t live in Indiana, have never lived in Indiana, or have never even been to Indiana, might still be due a claim, because if a corporation cannot locate the rightful owner of an account, then it’s supposed to be turned over to the state in which the company is incorporated. This same “out of state” unclaimed money situation is also often present when dealing with money owed from insurance companies, among others.

In addition to not limiting yourself to searching Indiana’s records, it is even more important that you search regularly because you never know when a record in your name might be added to the unclaimed money list of any given state. The state obviously has no record of these funds until an account has been dormant long enough to be considered abandoned or “unclaimed”, but even then, there’s no guarantee of how quickly the state will actually add the record to their system.

The one downside to unclaimed money in Indiana is that there is a time limit on making your claim. Many states will hold your money forever, until some heir of yours claims it at some point, but Indiana only gives you 25 years. 25 years may sound like a long time, but if you consider that money becomes “unclaimed” because it’s forgotten, which means there’s a good chance it was abandoned a long time ago. Urgency is clearly key in locating lost property in the state of Indiana.

To ensure you locate your lost assets before the state takes full possession of them, and to overcome countless other problems that befall those searching for unclaimed money, it’s important that you enlist the help of unclaimed property experts to guide you through the process.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Indiana unclaimed money and missing money across the country.