Who Has The Money
So who has the money?
A good portion of all unclaimed money is held by individual states. New York, for instance, now holds close to $10 billion in unclaimed money in roughly as many as 23 million accounts. Pennsylvania has $1.5 billion and New Jersey is holding at least $1 billion as well. Smaller states such as Maine list lesser amounts - $131 million in 42,000 accounts. Each state has an office dedicated to unclaimed property and unclaimed money.
The collection, management, and efforts to find rightful property owners is a business in and of itself. In general a state collects more unclaimed money than they give to fund owners through the course of one fiscal year. It takes a significant bureaucracy to enforce laws that govern the collection of unclaimed money and to devise and implement strategies to find rightful property owners. In New York as well as other states they boast that the amount of money returned is expanding. For example, in 2008 NY returned $194 million to property owners - a $25 million increase over money returned in 2007. Unclaimed money is a win win situation for all involved and there's money to be had for those on both sides, you just have to know where to look. This site is dedicated to helping you find it.