More Than 3,000 People to Receive Funds in Second Year of Unclaimed Property Program
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – State Treasurer Riley Moore today announced checks totaling more than $3.7 million have been sent to more than 3,000 individuals as part of the second year of the “West Virginia Cash Now” program, which automatically reunites certain individuals with their lost or unclaimed funds.
“The West Virginia Cash Now program has revolutionized how we reunite people with their lost and unclaimed money,” Treasurer Moore said. “Now in its second year, we’ve been able to automatically send nearly $7 million in unclaimed property to its rightful owners without the need to file claims with our Office. It’s one of the many ways we’ve modernized and streamlined the State Treasurer’s Office to better serve our citizens.”
West Virginia Cash Now launched last year as a new, automated system for sending unclaimed property to its rightful owners – without the need for those individuals to file paperwork with the State Treasurer’s Office.
Borne out of House Bill 4511, an unclaimed property modernization bill that Treasurer Moore proposed to lawmakers during the 2022 legislative session, this program allows the Unclaimed Property Division to quickly issue checks to residents who have addresses and contact information that are readily verifiable in legal databases.
The Treasurer’s Office mailed letters to potential recipients in July to notify them they should be receiving a check through the new program. In addition to informing the individuals they would be getting a check, the letters were also used to verify addresses. Letters that came back undeliverable were removed from the West Virginia Cash Now check distribution.
A total of 3,314 individuals will receive checks as part of this year’s distribution, totaling $3,762,666 returned to rightful owners.
The checks were mailed by the Office at the end of the last week, so they should be hitting residents’ mailboxes as early as today.
“I urge everyone: If you receive a letter from our Office, be sure to open it and deposit the check that’s inside,” Treasurer Moore said. “One of the biggest challenges we often face with the unclaimed property program is that people think it’s a scam or too good to be true – it’s not. This is your money, and it’s our job to return it to you, so deposit that check with confidence and use the money as you see fit.”
West Virginia’s unclaimed property laws protect the public by ensuring money and property owed to them is returned, rather than remaining permanently with financial institutions, business associations, governments and other entities. The Treasurer seeks to reunite the unclaimed property, which often comes from uncashed checks, refunds, stocks or safe deposit box contents, with its owner.
The Unclaimed Property Division regularly receives property remittances from holders, and now has more than 3 million listings valued at more than $400 million in its database.
The West Virginia Cash Now program applies to one of the most common types of claims: Individual property owners with claim amounts ranging from $500 to less than $5,000 will be receiving checks this year through the program.
More information about the program is available at the Unclaimed Property Division’s official website: www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov.
Information on the Cash Now program is available by clicking on the “WV Cash Now” tab at the top of the page.
While the Cash Now program created a new automated process for certain claims, it does not apply to all claims. Businesses, government entities, estate claims and securities are not covered by the program because additional documentation is required to verify the owner. Individuals with claims less than $500 or more than $5,000 will also still have to file paperwork with the Office to receive their claim.
Since the West Virginia Cash Now program will not cover all types of claims, or because certain claim information might not be able to be matched with individuals in available databases, Treasurer Moore emphasized that individuals should still regularly visit www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov to search and see if the Office is holding any assets in their name.
Video testimonials about the program are also available on the West Virginia Cash Now website, and on YouTube at: