US Treasury Unclaimed and Missing Money Owed to Americans

US Treasury Unclaimed and Missing Money Owed to Americans
By Russ D Johnson

The bursting of the real-estate bubble brought about a storm of problems that hit the U.S. like a super-typhoon. Seemingly invincible Wall Street juggernauts came crashing down gasping. Detroit's ailing Big Three triggered a wave of factory shut-downs and lay-offs that started a wave of job-loss and homelessness across the county. Other businesses have been downsizing as well and it doesn't seem like things are going to improve soon. In fact, the economic quagmire has spread to Asian nations like an unstoppable virus and financial experts can only sit back watching helplessly.

A depressing number of American families are still losing their homes up to this point and the wave of recession is slowly creeping inwards from opposite coasts. All but a miniscule percentage of the US population has been affected by the economic crisis that just turned global and people are struggling just to keep meals on the table. To say people are desperate for cash would be a gigantic understatement. Unknown to most, there is a way for Americans to get their hands on some easy money. It's not a sure-shot deal mind you, but it's not a scam either. I'm talking about lost money belonging to people and businesses that have lost track of their finances through bad addresses, file mix-ups, oversight or what have you. Yes, a large portion of the American populace are actually richer than they think they can find missing money from state unclaimed property quite easily.

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators is an organization that represents the Unclaimed Money Bureau of each State and tries their best to protect and help Americans find their missing money from lost assets. The NAUPA's definition: "Unclaimed property (sometimes referred to as abandoned) 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. "

Contrary to what one may think, it's quite easy to find missing money from financial assets that have been lost over time. Remember that we're in the information age and most of our transactions can be done online now. Finding unclaimed money at the click of a mouse is just one of the pluses that come with the times. True, the increasingly fast pace we're living our lives these days makes it easier for us to lose track of our funds, but it can be just as easy to get it back providing the proper methods for an online unclaimed money search are used.

Surprisingly, only a few of the millions of people owed state unclaimed property are actually trying to find missing money through the net. The $33 BILLION national unclaimed money pile is evidence of this. During times like these, that's quite ironic as multitudes of people in the U.S. are in a financial bind. The problem may lie in lack of public knowledge and proper search methods. Finding out how to do an expert unclaimed money search- know where, when and how to look can put much needed funds in citizens' desperate hands.

Unclaimed property (sometimes referred to as abandoned) 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." Examples of the latter can be anything from currency, assorted jewelry, family heirlooms, antiques and mementos. Unclaimed money in the U.S. Treasury is kept for safekeeping by most states until the rightful owners come- be it 10, 100, or 200 years, but tangible items from safe deposit boxes are auctioned-off each year due to lack of space in the unclaimed property vaults. Though family valuables may be forever lost on unclaimed money auctions held on eBay, the proceeds from the auctions are still claimable as a cash value and buyers on eBay get great deals from auctions held by the Treasury.

The amount of U.S. Treasury unclaimed money varies per state. New York, California and Florida have the biggest amounts at $8B, 6B and $2B (yes, the "B" is for BILLION) respectively. All 50 states in the United States are holding onto some amount of unclaimed funds or physical property belonging to residents, and the unclaimed property accounts are growing because most owners don't know that they're owed cash from their lost assets. All it really takes for folks to find their lost money is to learn how to do an online search properly. Within minutes, you may find you might be rich and didn't know it.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their missing and unclaimed money online since 1997. His sites are UnclaimedMoney.net and MissingMoney.TV which are updated regularly and are guaranteed official searches

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