TREASURER MOORE ANNOUNCES $2 MILLION IN UNCLAIMED PROPERTY RETURNED DURING FEBRUARY
State Treasurer Riley Moore today announced his Office’s Unclaimed Property Division returned more than $2 million worth of unclaimed funds to individuals, businesses and other organizations during the month of February.
“We enjoyed another strong month of returning money to its rightful owners,” Treasurer Moore said. “We’re always proud to help reunite our citizens, businesses, local governments and other organizations with their lost or abandoned funds.”
The Unclaimed Property Division returned a total of $2,053,859 paid out through 1,785 claims during the month of February. Since the fiscal year began last July, the office has paid out more than $15.7 million worth of claims.
Treasurer Moore also reminded individuals who may have received checks in the mail through the West Virginia Cash Now program to open those envelopes and cash them before the end of this month. The uncashed checks are slated to stale-date at the end of March, which would once again make them unclaimed property.
“We’ve been telling people, ‘Don’t let your unclaimed property check turn into unclaimed property’ – cash it today,” Treasurer Moore said. “If you have a pile of unread mail in your house, go through it and look to see if you have any envelopes from our Office in there – it could be a check with your name on it.”
If the check does expire, the funds will revert back to the Unclaimed Property Division and will once again be available for claim at www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov.
The State Treasurer’s Office has more than $400 million worth of unclaimed property listings in its database.
For more information about the unclaimed property program, or to search if the Office is holding anything for you, visit www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov.
What is Unclaimed Property?
Unclaimed property can include financial accounts or items of value in which the owner has not initiated any activity for one year or longer. Common examples include unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts and unused rebate cards. (While the title includes the word “property,” it does not however include real estate.)
West Virginia’s unclaimed property laws protect the public by ensuring money and property owed to them is returned to them, rather than remaining permanently with financial institutions, business associations, governments and other entities. The Treasurer seeks to reunite the unclaimed property, including uncashed paychecks, stocks, or safe deposit box contents, with its owner.
Nationwide, nearly 33 million people in the United States – one in every 10 – are estimated to have unclaimed property available for them to claim.
How Can I Find Unclaimed Property in My Name?
West Virginians searching for lost financial assets can go to www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov. In addition to finding property, the website will also help you track a claim.
A demonstration of how to use the Unclaimed Property search site is available on the Treasury’s YouTube page, at: https://youtu.be/K09yQ7YNKlE.
To search for lost financial assets outside West Virginia, visit www.MissingMoney.com.