Does This Unclaimed $485 Billion Belong to You?

Do you know whether any of your former employers - or your spouses’ employer - offered a pension? If not, it may be time to check. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. is holding $197 billion on behalf of 36,000 people. One of them could be you.

And they’re only one of several agencies that could be holding your money wondering whether you’re ever going to claim it. There are at least five places to find missing money.

• The Internal Revenue Service has billions in unclaimed taxpayer refunds, for instance. Some are the result of returned mail — possibly because the taxpayer moved or the IRS got the taxpayer’s address wrong. Additionally, the agency suspects thousands of taxpayers who never filed returns are probably also due refunds they paid federal income tax withholding, but didn’t earn enough to owe tax. (Many people — often young adults with part-time jobs and seniors with pensions — don’t need to file tax returns because they earn too little to have a filing requirement. But if they don’t file returns, they lose the hundreds of dollars paid in withholding by employers and pension administrators who issued their checks. After three years, the government gets to keep this money.) Think you could be due a refund? Here’s where to check: Call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 or go to the agency’s web site at www.irs.gov.
   
• The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. is the home of pension money gone astray, when a company closes or loses track of a former employee. The average missing pension is worth about $6,500, PBGC officials say. But at least one individual is owed a stunning $676,436. To find out if you’re on the list, go to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp’s online search directory and plug in your name (or the name of the beneficiary that you think may have lost track of their pension). If there’s a company that you lost track of, you can search by the company’s name too. If you can’t find your pension in the directory, but think you’re owed one, it could be that your former employer is still operating. The PBGC only takes over pensions that have been abandoned by the company or their owners. If the company is in business and you didn’t disappear into the Witness Protection program, the company should be holding your pension money rather than the government. If you lost track of the company, try a Google search. 
  
  
• The U.S. Treasury keeps track of savings bonds all $400 Billion of them — even when you’ve forgotten all about them as millions of people apparently have. If you find a bond in a drawer or safe deposit box, you can get a current value for it — or even replace a bond you’ve lost — through the government’s TreasuryDirect service. To claim a lost bond, you’ll need their form 1048. You can search for it on the site. 
  
  
• MissingMoney.com is the place to start searching for looking for forgotten rebates; deposits; state refunds and investments that you — or a long-deceased relative — have lost. It’s a national database of state “abandoned property” records. It’s particularly helpful for people who have a relative who was financially secretive, who now can’t fend for themselves. Surviving the Great Depression made my grandmother a little funny about money, for instance. She’d stash $20s inside the pages of books and put her savings account passbook in the back of the sock drawer. Years after she died, after searching “Missing Money” it was discovered that she also had a safe deposit box and several bank and brokerage accounts that no one ever knew about. So, one of the things that made this site so invaluable is that my family has moved several times and the site allows you to check most state unclaimed property databases with one search. 
  
  
• State Abandoned Property databases aren’t all registered with the Missing Money site, so if you think an account or check that you’re owed has disappeared, don’t stop searching until you’ve also checked the state abandoned property databases for every state in which you’ve lived. The massive California unclaimed property database and New York’s missing property division (which is holding an astounding $10.5 billion), are not listed on Missing Money. Can’t find your state’s unclaimed property division? Missing Money offers links to every state database, plus a few in Canada, Guam and the Virgin Islands, even when it doesn’t include their data in its directory. 
  
  
• State owes $7B in unclaimed property to Californians
  It's hard to believe some Californians would just forget to pick up their hard earned money, but that's exactly what is happening. The State Controller's Office said there's a $7 billion waiting to be claimed.
  
  
• DOL on 'orphan' accounts: try harder
  Got a problem with missing plan participants? The Department of Labor now has some new and improved advice on what to do. 
  
  
• Illinois Tollway customers can reclaim old I-PASS account funds
  The Illinois Tollway is offering customers a chance to retrieve an estimated $2.2 million in unclaimed funds from I-PASS accounts that have been inactive for the past seven years or more. 
  
  
• Florida unclaimed property treasure hunt brings in $1.31 million for public schools
  Floridians always love a good treasure hunt. Last weekend, savvy bidders had an opportunity to help Florida's schools by taking home some forgotten treasure. 
  
  
• NJ unclaimed property returns record $125 million during FY2014
  The Unclaimed Property Administration, a division of the State Department of the Treasury, returned a record amount of money to New Jersey residents during the last three years. 
  
  
• Search on-line for lost treasure at the Kentucky State Fair
  Now fair-goers can not only digitally search the Treasury's list of hundreds of thousands of unclaimed properties valued at nearly half-a-billion ($500,000,000) dollars but they will also be able to file a claim on-line. 
  
  
• A mound of forgotten money, and even you may have a claim
  For years, Jerry Seinfeld and Joan Rivers, and as many as 6,914 other customers, have never claimed refunds due them from Bergdorf's. General Motors has been in hock to Rupert Murdoch for nearly a decade. 
  
  
• State Treasurer offers unclaimed property list, services at State Fair
  State Treasurer Clint Zweifel's office will be on hand for the duration of the Missouri State Fair attempting to reunite citizens with millions of dollars in unclaimed property. 
  
  
• State of ID. holds unclaimed assets they want to give back to rightful owners
  More than $120-million in unclaimed assets are waiting to be claimed in Idaho. 
  
  
• B.C. residents are owed $92.3 million in uncashed government cheques
  Many B.C. residents are a little richer than they think.
  
  
• New law protects Pennsylvanians recovering lost money and items
  At the urging of state Treasurer Rob McCord, legislation enacted recently will guard Pennsylvanians against fraud and deceptive practices when they employ a service to help them claim their money or property that has been turned over to the state. 
  
  
• Are YOU owed money? State Treasurer's Office serving up unclaimed property at State Fair!
  The Office of the State Treasurer is serving up missing money at its Wisconsin State Fair booth this year! It takes five only minutes to search our database. 
  
  
• $523,000 in unclaimed cash awaiting Wilkes residents
  The N.C. Department of the State Treasurer is holding over $523,000 in unclaimed cash and property that belongs to current or former residents and companies of Wilkes County. 
  
  
• Indiana AG looks for owners of nearly $150 million
  Residents in Central Indiana have millions of dollars that's been forgotten - $148,849,355 to be exact.
  
  
• Ottawa sitting on $730 million stockpile of uncashed taxes, other benefits
  Ottawa is sitting on a stockpile of more than $730 million in uncashed tax refunds and other government cheques, according to Public Works Canada. 
  
  
• State could help owners find lost savings bonds
  The State Treasurer's Office would be able to search for the owners of long-matured U.S. savings bonds under a measure that has cleared the Senate and gotten a nod from the House Finance Committee. 
  
  
• 75 people with unclaimed property in Southern Idaho
  Many Idahoans' names, for one reason or another, end up on the state's unclaimed property list. 
  
  
• One billion remains unclaimed
  If you're a little short on cash these days - you'll want to pay close attention to this next story. 
  
  
• State holding unclaimed $599 million: Look up your share here State residents, past or present, have left behind nearly enough unclaimed property to pay for a new XL Center, the proposed downtown minor-league baseball stadium and the $55 refund once promised for every current taxpayer in Connecticut. 
  
  
• State treasurer finds owners of $40 million in unclaimed propertyMissouri State Treasurer Clint Zweifel has announced that his office has returned more than $40 million in Unclaimed Property to more than 170,000 accounts in Fiscal Year 2014, which ended Monday. That's a 25 percent increase in accounts returned over Fiscal Year 2013. 
  
  
• Annual list of unclaimed property in Nevada
  The Nevada state treasurer will be publishing its yearly unclaimed property list in several of Nevada's newspapers at the end of the month. 
  
  
• Is Revenue Quebec keeping $300M of your cash?
  Nearly a third of $1 billion belonging to Quebecers is sitting unclaimed at the provincial tax agency.
  
  
• Your check could be in the mail
  You may want to check your mailbox often over the next several days as PA Treasury prepares to return $21.8 million in unclaimed property to Lehigh county residents, businesses and organizations.

Remember it's not what you have that counts, but what you could possibly have...



-Birdy.