Dateline NBC ran a story last night about those old unclaimed property laws. Funny, I thought everyone and their brother knew about these by now, but apparently not.
The basic idea is this: you could have unclaimed money just lying around to which you are entitled.
It could be an outdated paycheck, an old stock certificate, or even an inheritance that’s owed to you. When no one claims these items, they get turned over to your state. Often, they remain there untouched for years.
State and local government just don’t have the manpower to go around and track all of these people down, so they make the information available on the internet.
To find out if you have unclaimed money out there, just go to unclaimed.org and enter your info. You can also try missingmoney.com as that site is connected to 32 states’ local governments.
Last but not least, you also go here and check your individual state’s records.
Watch out for scams! While finding the money is easy, some warnings:
- Never pay anyone to get your own money back.
- There are companies that will call or send you a letter stating they’ve found money for you– but they’ll want to take a cut of your money… as much as 30 or 40 percent and there is absolutely no need for it.
- Every state has a free online database where you can check your name.
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