Make My Day!

Would it make your day if you found a stash of cash hidden in a long forgotten hiding place? One out of every 10 people has approximately $1000, somewhere, in a “forgotten” account.

It’s estimated that there is $32 billion sitting in lost or forgotten accounts. These “accounts” could be from unclaimed life insurance proceeds, utility deposits, savings accounts long forgotten, stock dividends, lost tax refunds, and pay checks that were never picked up.

By law, banks, insurance companies, utilities, and many other business are required to surrender inactive accounts to the government for safe keeping. If you can prove that you are you and the person entitled to the money, the government will be happy to hand the money over to you, without any charges or fees.

To find out if a windfall could be yours, go to www.unclaimed.org or www.missingmoney.com and take a look in your state. Check every state that you have ever lived in and enter all the names you might have gone by, such as your married or maiden name. If you don’t see your name, but think that you do have money coming to you, call the state’s treasury department and ask them to check for you.

Beware: There are companies that will gladly charge you a fee to look for this money. It’s so simple to do on your own that you won’t need to hire anyone.