I got an interesting bit of news this week. I found that the State of Indiana is holding some unclaimed money for me. It was some sort of rebate from an insurance policy. Maybe the insurance people tried to contact me and lost my address or something and just turned the money over to the state. It's one of those situations where it's, "We don't call you-you call us".

There are millions of dollars of unclaimed cash being held by all fifty states right now . Really? Yes it's true. But we have to ask for it. Where do the state Treasuries get our cash?

Most of it comes from  places you forgot about like utility deposits, unredeemed stock, uncashed checks. safe deposit box contents. savings accounts. checking accounts,…customer deposits or Insurance overpayments (the most common) and many other places. The company or bank holds on to it for a while and does their best to contact the owner of the cash but if that doesn't work it is turned over to the state Attorney General and held in trust. Here's the great part: It never expires in most states. In Indiana it is held for 25 years before the state "absorbs" it.. If you forgot to get your overpayment on car insurance or a video rental 25 years ago, they still have your money for you.

About 20% of the cash is claimed every year. It's big cash too. Here in Indiana about 34 million dollars has been claimed so far this year! Billions are being held in other states. So--how do you check to see if there's money waiting for you?

You can go to the state  Attorney General's office web page and do a search if you lived in Indiana. (Indiana is the only state where the Attorney general handles the funds-most are held by the state Treasurer).THERE IS NO FEE of any kind. In Indiana you can go direct to the AG at Indiana Unclaimed Funds. You'll see a place to put your name in a search. I might suggest you use just your last name in case you only used your initials or a shortened name like "Bill" instead of "William" like I do. Be sure to enter relatives even if they are deceased.

I would like to emphasize this is NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT.  The easiest way to search most of the states is to go to missing money and you can search all these states: Alabama , Alaska , Alberta Canada , Arizona , Arkansas , Colorado , District of Columbia , Florida , Idaho , Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kentucky , Louisiana , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , Michigan , Minnesota , Mississippi , Missouri , Montana , Nebraska , Nevada , New Hampshire , New Mexico , New York , North Carolina , North Dakota , Ohio , Oklahoma , Puerto Rico , Rhode Island , South Carolina , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Utah , Vermont , Virginia , West Virginia , Wisconsin.. If you ever lived in any of those you can check them in one search. If you lived in any of the 11 states that are not listed above, you can go to the "unclaimed funds" web site of the individual state. So what happens if you find out some state owes you money like I did?

Yep-an insurance rebate in Indiana was never paid and I just found out I'm due a little refund.. The ATs office has a questionnaire to fill out which requires me to prove that I lived in the state at the address where the cash is owed. I also have to send a copy of my drivers license, Social Security card and proof of  address. This may be more than I want go through  so maybe I'll just let that big wad of cash sit in Indianapolis. The unclaimed funds do not pay interest to the recipient but I'll bet the state of Indiana invests the unclaimed cash and gets a nice return.

Since it doesn't cost a penny to check and it doesn't cost anything to claim the funds,  you may as well check and see if there's a fortune waiting .

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