To date, more than $35 BILLION is lying as unclaimed cash in the United States of America. Now thirty five billion dollars is a lot of money!!! It is VERY likely you may be owed money. Are you doing anything to claim it?? According to Oprah Winfrey, as many as 8 out of 9 Americans are owed
lost money.
Most people think that only careless people are owed unclaimed money. That is not true. Even you may be owed unclaimed money.
The most common reasons why money becomes unclaimed money include forgotten savings and checking accounts, ignored safe deposit box contents, forgotten stocks, mutual funds, bonds, dividends, IRS refunds, wages, estates, mineral interests, uncashed cashier's checks, uncashed money orders, matured or terminated insurance policies etc.
When any institution has
unclaimed cash deposited with it for more than three years and when it is not able to contact the owner of the money, it usually hands over the money to the state or the federal authorities for safe keeping. This money becomes unclaimed money. Since the owner of the money has forgotten of the money and since the institution cannot get in touch with the owner, the money lies unclaimed and unattended for years together.
Most individuals are unable to solve the problem of
unclaimed cash because they have no idea on how to proceed to determine if unclaimed cash is owed to them or not. Many start searching through state databases. However, there are fifty state databases. Then come multiple federal databases. Searching each and every database individually can become a mind numbing affair. The smart thing to do is to visit all in one databases that lets you search multiple databases at the same point of time. You can save a lot of time and effort by making use of these databases. Whatever you do, do not restrict your search to a single or a couple of states. Search all the states in one go.
Bill McIntosh, Founder of
Cashunclaimed.com an all in one database, stresses the importance of expanding the search to include as many individuals as possible. Bill McIntosh opines that one must search for the names of one’s family members, relatives and friends as well. The problem of
unclaimed funds is a national problem and all must contribute to solve it. Since most of the websites, including Bill McIntosh’s website, offers free unlimited name search, searching for as many names as possible is not a problem at all. Bill warns that one should be aware that money may be owed to us under a variation of our legal name. William Ford may be owed money under the identity of W. Ford or Bill Ford. Hence, William Ford must search for money owed to W. Ford as well.
The process of finding the unclaimed money, simple as it may be, is just one part of the solution. The unclaimed cash has to be claimed back and the check has to land in your mailbox before the problem can be certified as having been solved. Fortunately, the process of claiming the unclaimed money is a simple on. Just fill the claim form and submit the same to either the state or the federal agency that is holding your funds. Applying to the wrong authority for the money is not going to get your money back. Do make sure you attach proof of identification like the drivers’ license or the birth certificate along with your form. You may be required to provide additional proof as well. However, that depends on the type of money that is being recovered. Once the claim is made, the money will land up in your account within two weeks to three months.
About the Author:
Nicole Anderson provides more information about unclaimed cash and its retrieval at
www.cashunclaimed.com. If you want to receive your lost funds check without undergoing the trouble of searching more than a hundred and twenty individual databases, just click on www.cashunclaimed.com and search for your money for free. The search covers all state and federal databases.
