If you’re the type of person who often misplaces your car keys or loses socks in the dryer, you should consider searching for missing money or unclaimed property.
Even if you are super organized, you may want to consider looking for financial assets that you may not know about. People being parted from their money happens more often than you might think. That’s why there are several national databases, generally set up by the U.S. Department of Treasury — but also banks and insurance companies — designed to connect people with their lost money.
If you’re interested in possibly becoming a little wealthier, keep reading.
Do you have unclaimed property?
“Unclaimed property” may sound like you might have a few acres of land sitting somewhere, but it’s actually a term that refers to money you’re owed but haven’t claimed. And there’s a reasonable chance that you do have some unclaimed property or missing money that somehow never reached your bank account.
After all, life can be messy and complicated, and the older you get, the more opportunities you have to lose track of money. A few scenarios that tend to cause people to lose out on money owed to them include the following:
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You . Maybe you left some money in an old bank account to cover any pending charges. Those charges didn’t come through, and you never thought to collect the remainder of the cash left in the account. So your old bank sent your money to the state, which is now holding it for you.
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You switched jobs. Maybe at a previous job, you started a 401(k) and then eventually left to work for another company. If you left the retirement account behind, it may have eventually been closed, and the money could have been transferred to the state government. In fact, the financial services company that there are about 29 million abandoned 401(k) accounts out there right now, holding about $1.65 trillion in assets.
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You switched insurance companies. Maybe you overpaid your old insurer, and your insurer sent you a check, but you thought it was junk mail and never opened the envelope. Eventually, the money owed to you may have been funneled to the state government.
Chances are, you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars owed to you. You may go to these national databases and discover you’re owed $17. But even small amounts of money could add up to something meaningful.
How to find and claim your missing money
Finding and claiming your missing money isn’t too difficult in most cases. But the first thing to keep in mind is that it’s generally a bad idea to pay anyone to look for your missing money, as it’s something you can do for free on your own.
Here are some websites you may want to check out — and what you may want to look for.
Unclaimed pensions
Visit the , which is run by the U.S. government. You can look up unclaimed pensions using your last name and the last four digits of your Social Security number.
Missing life insurance policies
Looking for an unclaimed life insurance benefit? The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has an . The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ web page also has a .
Unpaid back wages
Try the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s “. You’ll type in the name of your old employer and your name and go from there.
Old savings bonds
Maybe you’re convinced you have some old savings bonds somewhere that belong to you. In that case, you’ll want to go to the . You’ll be required to fill out a form, and it’ll help if you have the savings bond serial number.
Missing money, in general
You will definitely want to visit , where you might find cash from a variety of sources, from old bank accounts to refund checks from a cell phone company.
Once you’re on the MissingMoney.com website, you’ll type in your name and the state you live in (or the state you used to live in when you believe you might have had some money disappear). If you have a common name, you may see other people with your name and their addresses.
If you see your name and address, you can click “claim.” With MissingMoney.com and all of these unclaimed property websites, you’ll have to provide personal information such as your Social Security number, and you may have to jump through more hoops — like filling out a form or producing some documentation proving your identity — before you will be sent your money.
Is the Missing Money website legit?
Yes, it is. In fact, while there are a number of websites where you can look up unclaimed property, MissingMoney.com is probably the best known.
MissingMoney.com is run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) as well as state governments and several Canadian provinces. It’s free and easy to use — so easy that you might find yourself typing in the names of family members or friends to see if they’re owed money (if you do see that they’re owed anything, they will have to furnish personal information to get their money).