How to Find Out if You’ve Got Unclaimed Cash & Property

Did you know that the Tennessee Unclaimed Property Division holds nearly $1 billion in unclaimed property and money? It turns out that millions of Americans have unclaimed property and cash and most of it is eventually turned over to the state treasury. Click here to find out if you’ve got unclaimed property in Tennessee.

A Tennessee woman attending an event stopped at a booth being manned by the Tennessee Department of Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Division and came away with $1,285 left over from the estate of her mother who died 10 years earlier.

But there’s a simple way to find out if you’ve got $50 or $50,000 just waiting to be deposited into your bank account. Our friend Randy Hutchison, from the Better Business Bureau, dropped by KWAM on Thursday morning and offered some great advice on how to reclaim your windfall. Listen to our interview above.

What is unclaimed property?

• It most commonly includes savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed dividend or payroll checks, traveler’s checks, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders or gift certificates, and proceeds from life insurance policies.
• It may also include some forms of tangible property such as the contents of safe deposit boxes and military service medals.
• Common reasons you may have unclaimed property include:
  • You’ve moved frequently and checks weren’t forwarded.
  • You failed to close a bank account and forgot about it.
  • You’re the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or estate that you don’t know about and the company or executor couldn’t locate you.

Advice for reclaiming property?

• There’s no time limit on claiming property that rightfully belongs to you.
• You can determine if there’s money owed you somewhere by visiting MissingMoney.com, the official unclaimed property website of the National Association of State Treasurers, or state websites including ClaimItTn.gov in Tennessee.
• The websites include instructions on filing a claim; there’s no fee.
• If you’re contacted by a third party telling you that you have unclaimed property somewhere and offering to help you get it for a fee, do your due diligence before paying up front, including checking them out with the BBB. Some are scammers that will take your money and run, while others will simply refer you to one or more unclaimed property.

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