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1. How can I find out if the government has
unclaimed money or property that may be
mine?
To determine whether any
unclaimed money are being held by the
federal government, you must determine the type
of benefit or payment that could be involved,
the date on which the payment was expected, and
how the payment should have been made. Given
this information, the agency responsible for
certifying any payment due should be able to
assist you in determining the current status of
any payment involved.
2. I received a letter stating that the
Treasury Department may owe me money or may be
holding unclaimed money (or property)
in my name. The letter indicates that I can
receive this unclaimed property if I pay a
"finders" fee. Can these companies help me?
Several companies, or locator services,
engaged in the business of identifying and
recovering unclaimed assets for profit.
Sometimes they have questions about unclaimed
money. They acquire federal check issuance
data from various federal government agencies
under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act. The information requested by
these companies pertains to specific check
symbols, numbers and dollar amounts identified
on Treasury check cancellation listings. These
listings are not searchable by personal
identifiers, such as a person's name or social
security number. Personal identifiers may,
however, exist in federal agencies' check
issuance or cancellation records. Using such
personal identifiers, if available, these
locator services attempt to locate the
prospective beneficiaries, or "payees," for
canceled/unpaid government checks and, on their
behalf, attempt to collect the payment amounts
from the federal agencies that originally
certified the payments. It is important to note
that these firms are also involved in
recovering unclaimed property in the possession
of state and local government entities.
3. What happens with federal checks that are
returned undeliverable or cannot be paid for
one reason or another?
No non-federal agency can issue payments on
behalf of federal program agencies until
official certification of those payments is
received from the agencies. In those cases when
undeliverable, unnegotiable and/or otherwise
unpaid checks are returned to the Treasury
disbursing centers, the checks are merely
cancelled and the respective funds return to
the agencies that originally certified the
payments.
4. How does property get lost in the first
place?
Property often gets lost for numerous
reasons; change of address, change or jobs,
because of illness or upheaval. For instance,
my mother got sick. Like many of us, she
was urprepared and did not have her accounts
and insurance information in order. Her
illness as it progressed made it difficult for
her to communicate. When she passed the family
did not know where to look for information
regarding her belongings. Over time some
things were found, however a lot may still be
missing. Recently I discovered she had
opened small bank accounts all over the city.
They ended up "dormant"--which generally
happens when no business is transacted for
three years or more--and getting escheated, or
turned over, to the state. Situations
like this is not uncommon and is just one of
many scenarios on how property gets lost.
5. What is unclaimed property?
Unclaimed property (sometimes referred to as
abandoned property) refers to accounts in
financial institutions and companies that have
had no activity generated or contact with the
owner for one year or a longer period. Common
forms of unclaimed property include
savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed
dividends or payroll checks, refunds,
traveler’s checks, trust distributions,
unredeemed money orders or gift certificates
(in some states), insurance payments or refunds
and life insurance policies, annuities,
certificates of deposit, customer overpayments,
utility security deposits, mineral royalty
payments, and contents of safe deposit
boxes.
6. How do states try to return this money?
The state treasurers and other officials who
administer the unclaimed property programs have
developed many powerful and effective methods
to locate owners including the use of websites,
cross-checking public data, staging thousands
of awareness events at state fairs and even
shopping malls, and developing a national
database. The methods work as tens of millions
of potential lost owners inquire annually
resulting in this vital consumer protection
program returning money to people at a rate
approaching two billion dollars annually.
7. How do I begin my free search?
Companies are required by law to send funds
from lost accounts to the state of the owner’s
last known address. That means you could
potentially have unclaimed property in every
state that you have resided. The Unclaimed
Money Guide gives you all the answers on 169
pages.
You can also visit this web site
http://www.nichetray.com/unclaimed-money/Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-Unclaimed-Money.html
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