Sometimes, if a person moves to another state, businesses and financial institutions are neglected to be notified. When this happens, proceeds or unexpected money coming in like dividends, royalty payments, back wages, commissions and even lottery winnings are not successfully delivered to the rightful owner. In this regard, the government has issued a law that mandates these businesses and financial institutions to report and hand over the unclaimed properties to the government agency handling it. In return, the agency then puts it in what is called unclaimed property database so that people who might be searching for lost or unclaimed property can go to this list to try and search for their names.
If you think you may be one of these people, then here are some tips in using the unclaimed property database for you to check if you have abandoned, lost or unclaimed properties.
It is important to note that you should be patient in looking for your name on your list. In case you don’t find your name on the unclaimed property database, two things can be possible – it’s either there really is no unclaimed property or the property might be in safekeeping for only a period of two years or below. If it is the latter, then it definitely won’t be open for public inspection. If this is the case then you can go to the Division of Unclaimed Property to make a request for further search or you ask for the health of government accredited third party agencies.