Unclaimed Money in Virginia
Every year millions of dollars of unclaimed money is just waiting with Virginia’s Unclaimed Property Agency to be claimed. This “property” ranges from checking account funds, payroll checks, stocks, life insurance to actual land. Usually these funds are unclaimed from the simple lack of contact information for a person because of a move, lost records or even natural disasters. We shall guide you through the process of finding out if you have any lost property waiting to be claimed.
A person doesn’t have to currently reside in Virginia to be owed unclaimed funds, especially since most accounts must be dormant for a few years before they’re turned over to the state. Leaving the state doesn’t mean you’ve forfeited the money by any means.
In addition to people who’ve moved out of state, others who have never lived in Virginia may also be owed unclaimed funds. For example, some people work for companies that have their headquarters in VA.
Sometimes, insurance companies are often based outside of the state of the insured person. For these reasons, things like stocks, premium overpayments, and refunds might exist as unclaimed cash in Virginia, even if the rightful owner has never even visited the state!
People who live in Virginia should also search in other states where there’s a chance they’re due a claim, for the same reasons that people who don’t live in VA should search the Commonwealth’s records.
There are a number of roadblocks that often prevent people from tracking down their missing money, but they mostly boil down to being uninformed about the best way to search. Not only do most people get in their own way by searching only one state, usually the one they live in, but they also tend to search once and call it quits.
As was mentioned earlier, each type of Virginia unclaimed property, and unclaimed property in all other states, have their own unique “dormancy periods” (years that must pass before the funds are turned over to the state to hold until you claim them). In addition to some property types having long dormancy periods, states don’t update their searchable databases in real time, which means if the state is holding your funds, you may not find a record when searching, if they haven’t added it to their system.
If a person searches their name on Monday, but the Virginia Department of Unclaimed Property didn’t get around to adding the record of their funds until Tuesday, or the following week or month, the search might return a false negative.
These are just a few of the issues that often stand in the way of people trying to find VA unclaimed money for the first time, which is why it is imperative that you find someone with experience in this field to guide you through the process to find all possible claims. Start searching right now and free yourself from the financial worries. Happy hunting!
