You could have money sitting in ‘unclaimed property’

The United States has billions of dollars in unclaimed property. 1 in 7 people do.

What is ‘unclaimed property’

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators describes unclaimed or “abandoned” property as “property or accounts within financial institutions or companies—in which there has been no activity generated (or contact with the owner) regarding the property for one year or a longer period.” After a period of time without activity or contact, the property becomes unclaimed and is turned over to the state. Unclaimed property could be refunds, customer overpayments, life insurance policies, checking or savings accounts, physical property left to you in a will, the list goes on.

Finding your unclaimed property in Florida

Go to fltreasurehunt.gov and type in your first and last names.

If you have unclaimed property, each available property waiting for you to claim will have an account number, your name and the address associated with the property. The picture below shows an example.

Click on the account number, answer the various questions, fill out the form and a check will be in the mail in a couple of weeks. If the state needs more information, they’ll contact you. This process is free to do yourself but there are business out there that will do it for you for a fee.

Every state in the country has an unclaimed property website. Check the websites of other state’s you’ve lived in to see there’s treasure waiting for you. You can do that by searching “[State] unclaimed property.”