DO YOU HAVE UNCLAIMED MONEY?
A huge number of unclaimed funds and properties are returned to the U.S. Treasury every year and the numbers of these properties are in millions. These may be unpaid salaries or wages, government allowances/ benefits and refunds of tax. The government doesn’t have the habit of reaching out and contacting citizens for their money.
According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), there are approximately $42 billion of unwanted funds in the United States of America.
Unclaimed funds arise from bank accounts that have no activity for one year or more, generally in IRS funds, savings accounts, uncashed dividends, stocks, security deposits and more.
Why there is so much unclaimed money?
John Decker explains, “Many people all over the country save their money in bank accounts or overpaid an electric bill at some or the other point and then moved to different place. If that institution is not able to track the owner with all its best efforts, then they have to clear the books and turn the credit over to the state.”
This mostly happens to the people who frequently move to different states, as the institution can’t locate current address easily.
How to Claim Your Money?
For finding unwanted money that belongs to you:
- Do explore the websites which are endorsed by NAUPA. com and Unclaimed.org are one of the few websites which have all the records of unclaimed money from all over the states. You can search by entering your first and last name and also your state name where you lived in.
- You can search the treasury websites of the states in which you currently live in and of any other states in which you have ever lived earlier.
- While looking, find in all the places you have ever lived. In case, married people can also look under their spouse name.
- Every state has own unique process which can normally take 3-4 months and ask for a few details.
How to find a particular property?
- Saving Bonds and Treasury Notes: Earlier the TRE (main) lets you, people, to search online but now you are required to present FS FORM Number 1048 for payment or substitution of the stolen, lost and destroyed bonds.
- Life Insurance Policies: If you are unaware of the company holding your policy, then you can contact the insurance department in the place where you have purchased the policy or where the company has its headquarter. As, companies can sometimes change names, location or sell off policies or they just get liquidated.
Insurance Department will let you know the institution’s name which is handling your policy & their contact details too.
- Unclaimed bank wages: You can check the database of Wage and Hour to check whether there was an uncredited check from the employer in the past.
- Account balances of banks that have failed: You can use the database of FDIC unclaimed funds to check the balance which is owed to you by a federally insured bank that has failed.
- Account Balances of Credit Unions that have failed: When a federally insured credit organization fails, NCUA will take the liability to pay back money to the account holders. The average time period to get the money back is almost 18 months. Check your funds in the database and submit a verification form of members.
- Pensions: You can explore the PBGC records to know the status of your pension funds. You can search it by your company name, last name and state name.
- Tax refunds: A huge amount of tax refunds is left unwanted every year. The reason is a regular shifting of the taxpayer in the different locations and the IRS does not know about the new place/address. You can also look into the IRS Refund status on the website to see its status.
- You can type details such as social security identification number, the status of filing and the amount you are expecting as a refund. You can also type your new location if you have changed your place to get refund details.
- In case you are not filing taxes but taxes are deducted at source or you have Earned Tax Credit (EITC), you have owed To get a refund, present a return within 3 yrs of passed deadlines.
- Finding Inherited property:
- If you have reason to believe that someone known has left any money for you then you can also claim it. Just gather enough information to claim to their insurance benefits. You should have their full name, social security identification number and maiden name. If you unable to get a social security identification number, then try to contact the department of Social Security.
- If the deceased has left the properties in a will then try to contact the lawyer to claim your share.
- For claiming any property left by the deceased, you have to arrange for the death certificate. Try contacting the state in which the person died to get the death certificate.
Be careful about the following:
- Avoid third Party Negotiation:
There are third parties who charge a certain percentage of your total as a commission. Many of them work within the law, but others are mostly scam artists. Try to contact the unclaimed property office in your state which is free of cost. Though it may take longer, but going through the right path will get your money for sure, no strings attached.
- Be careful with scammers:
There are scammers on the market, which calls you or emails you about your unclaimed money. No government will contact you to tell you about your funds. These are scammers. These people trick you by representing them as the government officials. Avoid giving any information to these people. Try to approach unclaimed property institute of your state to confirm any kind of communication. If you find out any scammer, then inform this to the cops.
