How to Find Unclaimed Money: The Easy Guide

Billions of dollars in unclaimed money are held by various agencies and organizations throughout the United States.

A Fact to Keep in Mind

A January 2013 report from CNN Money estimated that the collective amount exceeded $58 billion in unclaimed benefits and cash.

You could potentially change your way of life with a microscopic percentage of that multibillion-dollar goldmine, right? Perhaps that is why many people search for effective ways to find and recover unclaimed money that might be assigned to them.

If you want to learn how to recover unclaimed money in your name without any strings attached, keep reading because everything you need to know is below.

State Departments and Agencies

The first step on the journey to find unclaimed money should be handled on a state level. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) reports that over $41 billion of the total amount of unclaimed money in the U.S. is held by the states – which explains why the state should be your first stop.

Good to Know: Contacting your state may seem intimidating – especially since there are so many different departments, agencies and organizations to consider. To lighten the load, you can use the NAUPA website to connect you directly to the appropriate department responsible for collecting and holding unclaimed money in your state.

Important Tips

• When conducting your search, do not just focus on your current
• You may have unclaimed money to recover from years ago perhaps in other states that you have lived in for one reason or another.
• Take the time to search each state that you and your family have called “home” to make sure that you do not leave a single stone unturned.
• To save time as you try to find unclaimed money, search for multiple states at once instead of having to scroll through each state individually.
• If there are any funds with your name on it in other countries – such as British Columbia, Puerto Rico, Quebec or Guam – then this online database will point you in the right direction as well.

In addition, conducting a search to find unclaimed money within your state may also lead to finding unclaimed property.

Veterans Insurance Policies

Another source to consider if you want to find unclaimed money is the insurance policies and related cash benefits of veterans. Perhaps you served in the military or are the dependent of a veteran.

Good to Know: Studies have shown that there are millions of dollars in dividend checks, death awards and even premium refunds that remains unclaimed.

How Does This Work?

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) strives to reach out to the policyholders and/or beneficiaries to provide these funds to them directly. However, this does not always work.
• There are quite a few people that simply cannot be located for one reason or another, which is why this federal department simply holds on to the unclaimed funds until it can be recovered.
• The unclaimed checks, refunds and monetary awards are returned by the post office to the VA and held until the policyholder (or named beneficiary) is eventually located.
• It is possible for the department to successfully find the policyholder or beneficiary within a few weeks or months. However, there are some instances where the payments remained unclaimed for many years.

Pro Tip: If you would like to find unclaimed money held by VA, visit the department’s website to conduct an online search. From there, you can enter the first and last name of the veteran to see if there are any unclaimed funds waiting for you.

Additional Info: If you are trying to find unclaimed money from a relative’s military career, then you should check with them to see if they have any applicable documentation that will point you in the right direction. Most policies dated before 1965 are not tracked through the online database. This includes funds from Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) and/or Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) policies.

Life Insurance Proceeds

Veterans are not the only ones who can benefit from unclaimed money connected to insurance policies and death benefits for beneficiaries.

Good to Know: It is true that veterans’ benefits are managed and maintained on a state level. However, there are still millions of dollars in unclaimed money attached to policies managed directly by insurers.

Examples

• For instance, you may have been designated as a beneficiary on a loved one’s policy, but no one was able to contact you after his or her passing to inform you.
• If you are the insured, then perhaps you have unclaimed money attached to an old policy that you either exchanged or allowed to lapse over time.
• Regardless of the scenario, it is recommended for you to contact the insurance company to find out more about the steps required to claim any funds assigned to you.
• For example, MetLife encourages beneficiaries to use an online search tool on the company’s website to find associated policy benefits.
• In most cases, you will not be able to search for policy information on employer-paid group policies – just individual policies.
• However, all insurance carriers are required by law to eventually turn unclaimed money over to the state through a process known as escheatment.

This stresses the importance of making sure you check with your state departments and agencies as the first stop on your tour to recover unclaimed money. Doing so can save you a lot of time when you consider how long it would have taken you to gather information on various life insurance policies without it.

Federal Tax Refunds

Tax season is a highly-anticipated time of the year for many taxpayers – especially those who are looking forward to receiving their tax refund checks or direct deposits.

Important Fact: According to the IRS, over 31.9 million refunds were processed – adding up to more than $101.2 billion dollars (an average of $3,169 per taxpayer). Unfortunately, this does not mean that all the refunds processed were received by their corresponding taxpayer.

Recommendations

• For instance, 94% of the refunds processed in 2018 were paid via direct deposit – which means a substantial portion (nearly 1.9 million) were possibly printed checks sent by USPS mail.
• To find unclaimed money through federal tax refunds, use the IRS website to access the agency’s “Where’s My Refund?” tool.
• With this feature, you can just use your Social Security number and refund amount to efficiently track down the status of your tax refund.
• Make sure that you carefully review your past income tax returns and associated forms to ensure that you have accounted for your claimed
• The last thing you want to do is to raise any red flags when it comes to taxes from previous years.
• Therefore, it is highly recommended for you to tread lightly when trying to recover unclaimed money from the IRs.

Pro Tip: There are more ways to get free government money. Check this comprehensive article we put together.

FHA-Insured Mortgages

You can also search for undelivered refunds that were generated by an FHA-insured mortgage (if applicable).

Good to Know: If you had a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), then you may qualify for a refund from another government agency – HUD.

How Does This Work

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can examine your record to determine if you can recover any unclaimed money through FHA insurance refunds.
• To search this database, contact the FHA to receive your case number. In most cases, this case number consists of three digits followed by a hyphen and another six digits.
• You will also need to enter the city where the FHA-insured property is/was located.
• If you are owed a refund, then you can call 1-800-697-6967 to find out how to get your refund and take the next step right away.

Before long, you may have a check waiting on you in the mailbox that could perhaps help you to pay your current mortgage.

Credit Union Accounts

Have you ever had a credit union account? What about someone else in your household? Like a lot of businesses, not every credit union has been able to prevent their doors from permanently closing.

Good to Know: You may have been a member of one of those now-defunct credit unions – which means you may have funds from an old checking or savings account that are still waiting for you.  How can you recover unclaimed money from an old credit union account?

• Just like with the state departments and agencies, you can rely on the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to guide you.
• Use the administration’s website if you want to learn how to recover unclaimed money from defunct federally-insured credit unions.
• Remember that timing is essential when you want to recover unclaimed money overall – especially when those funds are held by failed businesses.
• It is true that the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund provides credit union members with insurance coverage for their deposited funds up to $250,000.

However, the timing is crucial when trying to recover money from a failed credit union. Once the credit union is liquidated, it is highly recommended to search for unclaimed money within 18 months.

Matured Savings Bonds

Along with funds from credit union accounts, you can also find unclaimed money from U.S. savings bonds. A study conducted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury reports that nearly $16 billion in matured savings bonds remain unclaimed.

How to Take Advantage

• Do you have a savings bond that you may have forgotten about over time?
• Perhaps a parent, grandparent or distant family relative gifted you with a savings bond (or bonds) several decades ago and you inadvertently let it slip through the cracks.
• Search through the online treasury database to see if your name is assigned to a chunk of the multibillion-dollar stack of unclaimed funds from savings bonds.
• You can also check with the relative or friend that may have gifted the saving bond(s) to you to see if they retained the documentation that accompanied their original investments.

Foreign Claims

• If you have traveled the world or lived in another country, then governments in other countries may owe you some money – especially if you have lost any valued property or assets within that country.
• These types of losses can be caused by several key events – including injured military personnel or civilians, property damage or any other type of monetary loss caused by military operations.
• Claims for this specific type of unclaimed money are filed through the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC) which is an independent federal agency that is essentially part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• What many people do not realize is that the compensation to recover these types of losses is covered and authorized by Congress.
• Once the payment is authorized, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, an official payment voucher is sent to the claimant.

Retirement Money

In addition to life insurance proceeds and matured savings bonds, you can also find unclaimed money through retirement funds and pensions.

Useful Info: One report claims that over $300 million is currently owed to nearly 38,000 people in pension benefits with an average benefit of $9,100.

Good to Know

• Just like with credit unions, there is a growing number of companies and organizations that accumulate pensions for their employees.
• However, an alarming number of these companies fail year after year. What happens to the pension funds when these companies close their doors forever?
• The employee may not even realize that they accumulated retirement benefits at all or forgot about it in the years that have passed since they ceased their employment.
• Once again, this is where the federal government steps in to save the day and help!
• For instance, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) successful reunites unclaimed retirement money with its anxious owners.
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is another great resource to use when trying to recover pensions – especially since the organization provides a free online search tool of its own to save you time.
• It is important to remember that your retirement benefits are protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

To make sure that you comply with the guidelines of this act, there are specific requirements that must be followed regarding the timeline for claim filing decisions and the rights that you can exercise whenever a claim is denied.

Overbid Proceeds

Perhaps you have experienced a foreclosure of your home in the past or a tax lien caused by delinquent taxes.

Good to Know: Quite a few liens and foreclosed properties are sold at auctions each year. If these assets are sold for a price that exceeds the amount owed, this creates what is known as “overbid proceeds” that must be paid to the previous owner.

• As is the case with other types of unclaimed money, there are notifications sent out via USPS mail to the former property owners to make sure they know about it.
• However, these notifications are typically sent to the foreclosed home address – which means the intended recipients are frequently left out of the loop.
• In most cases, according to CNN, these “overbid proceeds” are held at a county/city level.
• Keep in mind that the timeline for overbid proceeds is much shorter, because they may only last a few years.
• Reach out to your city/county clerk to receive an update on which agency or organization holds the funds.

Warning: Stay Away from Paid Searches

The fact that you should be able to recover unclaimed money without having to pay anything upfront to do so may seem strange and illegitimate.

• This type of service could potentially lead you to recover hundreds or even thousands of dollars (if not more) in unclaimed money – which makes it hard to believe that there are no strings attached or hidden fees.
• As referenced above, most of the resources used to find unclaimed money are government agencies, departments and organizations either on a state or federal level.
• Therefore, you should never have to pay to conduct a search for unclaimed money through any of these resources.

If you encounter a fee requirement at any stage of your journey to recover unclaimed money, you should view it as a “red flag” and warning sign that you must avoid.

Beware of Fraudulent Scams

Paid searches are not the only fraud traps circulating online today that claim to show people how to recover unclaimed money.

For Example: You may have received a phone call from an alleged government agency claiming to have an accurate record of your unclaimed money or assets.

• These “agencies” may ask you to provide and/or verify confidential information about your household, finances and existing assets – claiming that the answers will be used to authenticate your identity.
• An important point to keep in mind is that government agencies will never call you about unclaimed assets – such as property, undelivered tax refunds and other unclaimed assets.
• According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), scammers can skillfully disguise their area codes to make you think they called from Washington DC or anywhere else to seem more credible.
• If you do receive a phone call of this nature, then you should immediately report the government imposter by filing an official complaint with the FTC.

You should also consider adding your phone number to the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry.

It will not necessarily stop fraudulent people from calling you. However, it will help you to realize that those who still call you after you register your phone number are more than likely fraudulent.