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US Unclaimed Property |
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| | US Unclaimed Property means assets that belong to millions of rightful owners but are held by unclaimed property offices and state escheators. If you have an account in a financial institution or a company, which has no transaction activity for one or more years, the account may be considered as an abandoned property and turned over to the state under United States Unclaimed Property Law.
Unclaimed Property may consist of saving accounts, checking accounts, uncashed dividends, payroll checks, stocks, refunds, unredeemed money orders, traveler’s checks, insurance payments, utility security deposits and contents of safe deposit boxes. Real Estate Property is not considered unclaimed property in the United States . Unclaimed Property Offices in USA presently hold several billion dollars in unclaimed property, money and funds, which are available for rightful owners to make claims.
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There are many reasons for the existence of such a huge amount of US Treasury Unclaimed Property. The most common reasons are relocation, death, change in names, marriage and divorce. In most cases, the owners or heirs do not aware of the existence of such properties, funds or money. For example, the dividend checks from your mutual fund or stocks might have gone to a wrong address or the life insurance company may have undergone demutualization and was not able to find the current address of the policy holder.
The property, funds, money and other assets lost or forgotten by their rightful owners for an extended period of time, which is normally from three to five years, are considered as abandoned property. According to the law of unclaimed property in US, the holders of such properties are required to turn them over to their respective state unclaimed property divisions if they are unable to track the rightful owners themselves within the time frame.
Although each state maintains their own separate database of unclaimed property, there are some organizations that are working towards developing a huge database of US Government Unclaimed Property at national level. Prominent among them is the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administers (NAUPA), which is the association of the state unclaimed property programs. Moreover, it is promoting MissingMoney.com, a website containing a comprehensive database of United States Unclaimed Property. Most of the states in the US participate in NAUPA endorsed MissingMoney.
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