Most Americans have never thought about searching for unclaimed money. Little do they know there are MILLIONS of people owed lost money. With the public unaware of the lost funds, the total of unclaimed cash has grown to over $40 BILLION!
Oprah Winfrey had a show where the audience was given checks. This was not a charity event but was actually a show on unclaimed money. Oprah checked for unclaimed money owed to the people in the audience. They were shocked as Oprah brought out check after check for thousand of dollars owed to many people in her studio.
On the show Oprah stated as many as 8 out of 9 families in the U.S. are owed unclaimed money!
So why do people not know they are owed this?
The money becomes unclaimed because the company or financial institution holding the funds has not heard from or been able to contact the account owner for about 3 years.
This usually occurs because contact information was not updated after the account owner moved and/or changed phone numbers and/or changed their legal name.
Therefore, the notifications sent to the account owner are sent to old addresses and they are never notified they have it owed to them.
The government requires companies and institutions to turn over these unclaimed funds and the government holds them as unclaimed. These funds are normally held by the controller's office of each state.
Where is unclaimed money from?
Unclaimed funds come from many sources.
Some of the most common places are:
- Checking Accounts
- Savings Accounts
- Tax Refunds
- Old Pay Checks
- Child Support or Alimony Payments
- Stocks, Bonds or Dividends
- Insurance Payments
...and so on, and so on.
How Do I Find Unclaimed Money?
You can search to see if you are owed any by entering your name and searching a database.
The search should tell you if there is unclaimed money reported under your name. Then you will have to look through accounts to see if they are accounts you recall having and if they are reported under an address you have had.
Once you locate the accounts you can submit a claim form and receive a check after the claim is processed.
Nicole Anderson offers more information about unclaimed money at http://www.cashunclaimed.com Cash Unclaimed's database covers all state and federal databases, has Name Match technology, which will search variations of your name to ensure nothing is overlooked, and offers unlimited name searches to members. Click on http://www.cashunclaimed.com for a free money search and locate your missing money today!
Source: www.articlealley.com
