Does This Money Belong to You?

According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property over $32Billion Dollars
is currently being safeguarded by state treasurers and is just sitting there waiting to be
claimed. The problems are that most people just don’t know the money is there or how
to go about claiming it. Could you have some unclaimed money or property? Wouldn’t
it be worth 3 minutes of your time to at least find out? Read on to see why this is a
more common occurrence than you would think…
According to a recent article in Kiplinger’s magazine Michelle Bixler received a letter
last fall from the state of Pennsylvania saying it had a $35,000 check for her from an
insurance company. She thought it was just a scam. But it turns out the check was the
result of a workers compensation claim she had made 9 years earlier. Since she had
never heard from the company and in fact the insurance company actually went out of
business, she figured she would never get anything. This is a classic example of how
money can go unclaimed for years and is often forgotten about.
But could this really happen to you? The answer is YES. All it took in Bixlar’s case
was that she moved and changed her address without alerting the proper financial
institutions. But these types of funds are not limited to unclaimed insurance proceeds.
They could also include checking and savings, payroll checks, utility deposits, taxrefunds,
stock certificates, certificates of deposits, pension payments, and unclaimed
safe- deposit-box contents.

So, by now you may be wondering how you can find out in 3 minutes or less if
you or your family members have any unclaimed money just lying around for the
taking. Here are two reputable websites where you can check this out for yourself.
www.missingmoney.com and www.unclaimed.org. Both websites have links that
take you to your treasury website from the state where you made the money. Also,
if you used to work for a company and suspect that you might be owed a pension
you may want to visit www.PBGC.gov to locate missing pension money. So go
ahead and check this out and let me know if you found any money that you didn’t
know you had. In financial times like these every penny counts and as soon as I
saw this I wanted to share it with my readers. And hey if you find some money and
need help investing it you know whom to call.
Over the last few years, I have seen clients receive claims from $1,000 to over $18,000.
What could you do with the money you find?