Unclaimed Property Blog

Most of the U.S. states are eyeing the unclaimed money lying in their coffers to fix their budget deficits. States are always on the lookout for the sources of additional revenue generation, and unclaimed property is quickly becoming one of the few sources of filling the void in the budget.

The center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the combined state budget deficit over the next two and a half years is likely to be about $350 billion. This will account for about 20% of the state budget.

Lost money, also known as unclaimed cash or unclaimed money, is becoming a cause of concern for many American states. The states are trying their best to help citizens in locating lost money.

Most of the state governments are sitting over billions of unclaimed cash and are willing to return it to the owners. Every U.S. state, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Quebec and British Columbia have unclaimed property programs that are dedicated to finding owners of lost and forgotten assets.

Finding lost money is one way to increase wealth. How to increase wealth is an obvious question in everybody’s mind. All our endeavors throughout the day are not only to earn money but also to create and increase wealth over a period of time. We try different approaches to increase wealth. These include savings, investments and cutting down on expenditure.

A major source that may help us in increasing our wealth often go unnoticed. Most of us are not even aware that it could bring us some money. This source is called as lost money, forgotten money or unclaimed cash.

“Lost cash? Me? ... Never!” may be your reaction if suggested to search for any lost cash lying unclaimed in your name. However, the brief online search may prove otherwise, as almost every American has at least one form of unclaimed cash or property lying on his/her name.

Most of the Americans have forgotten small amounts incurred to them from closed bank accounts, dividend pay-offs, insurance claims, tax refunds, utility deposits, oil royalties, wages, etc., which they did not bother to collect. The unclaimed cash ranging from a few dollars to a few millions is dormant in the custody of various state treasurers. In spite of the states’ rigorous efforts, there are still many citizens who are not aware of how to recover the lost cash.

$35 billion of unclaimed money isn’t a small amount. Many economies would be willing to have this amount at their disposal. Surprisingly, this huge cache is lying dormant with U.S. in the form of unclaimed cash.

In spite of the relentless efforts by U.S. State Treasurer, less numbers of people are turning up to claim unclaimed cash in their name. Though, the number is on the rise owing to a massive drive taken up by the states, the heap of unclaimed cash is reducing at much less speed than expected.

Unclaimed cash and property has been on a systemic rise in U.S.. The amounts of unclaimed cash have grown to new heights and today U.S. government is trying its best to hand over $32.877billion to its owners. This mammoth amount of over 117 million accounts is currently being safeguarded by state treasurers and other agencies.

The government has been creating multiple platforms to reach out to its citizens. To date, they have sent out thousands of personal memos, notices and messages to the people across the state.

Should any unclaimed money go to releaving the state’s budget deficit? Most of the U.S. states are caught in a peculiar situation in which there is unmanageable budget deficit on one hand, and hoards of unclaimed cash on the other. This has set the brain-storming among the U.S. think tank. They advocate that these unclaimed funds can be effectively utilized to fill in the budgetary void.

In spite of the relentless efforts by the authorities, claimants are not coming forward in expected numbers to fetch unclaimed cash in their names; it is likely to remain dormant for long. It will make good economic sense to not let it idle till the claimants come forward.

Unclaimed cash and property have been the prime concern for U.S. state governments. Though the property and cash is safe in the government treasury, it is not supposed to be there. People have started responding and acquiring unclaimed cash and property. They are claiming what has been rightfully theirs on a more aggressive note.

Last year, Michelle Bixler of Pennsylvania received her $35,000 check that was owed to her nine years back as an insurance amount. Another St. Louis citizen got his $1.6 million back. People who have no unclaimed cash in their name can even retrieve unclaimed cash and property of their parents name by claiming as legal heirs. This example was set by Russ Johnson who could claim his parents $2,985.65 that he was completely unaware of.

‘Unclaimed money’ has achieved a new magnitude altogether for last couple of years. As the amount of unclaimed money started swelling in the state coffers, treasurers were out asking citizens to come forward and stake their claims.

Almost every American has one or the other type of unclaimed cash or monetary property in their name. It is a shocking fact that there are around $33 billion worth of unclaimed cash with the U.S. government and other state organizations.

State unclaimed money is actually not the governments money at all for some reason people just don’t believe they can get “free money”. This is understandable considering that most things that appear too good to be true are indeed that.

Perhaps if this “free money” was spoken of in its more specific terms people would be more likely to take the theory seriously and actually obtain their share of the funds.However, it is believed by many that it is the particular terminology of the phrase that is detouring American taxpayers from pursuing these generous monetary opportunities.