FIND MISSING MONEY

One of the largest pots of unclaimed money out there is in the form of unclaimed estates – estates left behind by folks when they die, but for whatever reason, not passed on to their heirs. In some cases, the deceased simply never wrote a will, and has no close family relationships. People like this leave unclaimed estates lying out there every day. In other cases, the beneficiaries of existing wills are also deceased, and the will has not been updated in years. Without a clear legal heir, these estates can lie unclaimed for a long time. In still other cases, for personal or financial reasons, the willed beneficiary is either unwilling or unable to accept the money or property bequeathed to them. Whatever the reason for these estates lying unclaimed, there’s a limited amount of time (between six and ten years, depending on the state) during which blood relatives can prove their status as legal heirs to the estate and claim these resources and property outright as inheritance.
As there is no single database out there on which folks can search for unclaimed estates, the process of discovering them can be a bit of a challenge. Having a clear family tree extending as far back as possible is a good start. Ancestry.com can help you get started and provide you with some excellent guidance in this regard – family genealogy is interesting and fun work, too, even if it doesn’t reveal unclaimed estates for you to claim. Many individual states provide searchable or regularly updated databases of unclaimed estates, and a number of third-party services, both free and fee-based, are available to help you search – the best of which we look at here on the site.

Once you’ve identified an unclaimed estate that you feel you may make a legitimate claim on, the process is often quite simple. It’s not a bad idea to consult a lawyer practicing in the state where the estate is held prior to making your claim, as the process varies a bit from state to state, but in no state is it particularly complicated. Quite simply, you will be asked to demonstrate your legal claim to the property in question – most frequently by proving a blood relationship with the deceased – before a court or arbitrating body. The stronger your proof, the stronger your claim. Often when the blood relationship is a distant one, there can be a waiting period or public disclosure required – allowing those with a stronger claim on the estate to step forward and make their claim. Failing that, the powers that be will be forced to release the estate to you. There are literally billions of dollars in unclaimed property and estates out there, most of which are eventually claimed by the government. Why not grab what’s rightfully yours by exploring the unclaimed estates that you might be able to claim?

Getting started: Because unclaimed money and estates nationwide lack any single database containing all available information, finding them is a bit of a chore. The first place to check is on the website or in the office of the state treasurer in the states where you feel you may have a claim to make. In nearly every case, the office of the treasurer oversees unclaimed assets, and can point you in the right direction. A number of states, recognizing how useful a national database would be, have put together a website offering free searches of all recorded unclaimed assets in each of the participating states. This site can be found at www.missingmoney.com. The size of the database coupled with the expense of maintaining it means that the site is only updated on a monthly basis, but it’s a good start that will hopefully grow in usefulness in the future.

There’s a lot of missing and unclaimed money available, much of which you would never have found out about prior to easy access to the internet. The information age represents a huge leap forward in the ability of average citizens like you to search for, identify, and claim unclaimed estates that you are eligible to own, free and clear, in just days. Your inheritance is waiting for you right now, and we’re only to happy to help you find it. Let’s get started.