The concept of unclaimed cash is becoming considerably popular and important through-out the United States as more states have begun to take a bigger interest and begin to inspect companies and institutions that are holding unclaimed money, missing money etc.
It isn't simply a noble effort on the part of the government departments, it is an opportunity. As government agencies both State and Federal see this unclaimed cash as a source of revenue. So this isn't a matter just for individual citizens to study up on but also for corporate CPA's as well.
So what is unclaimed cash? One way of defining this ( from the company point of view) would be to call it a debt or a liability a company owes to someone or to another legal entity, when that debt has gone uncollected for a certain period of time. That period of time is defined by statutes. And those laws differ from state to state and with the federal government.
An example would be an unclaimed payroll check or an uncashed insurance dividend. Another example is an uncashed tax return. After the legally defined period of time the payroll check in the example above becomes unclaimed money. Legally all companies or financial institutions that owe unclaimed cash must do everything in their power to locate the owner.
The individual companies, institutions and government agencies involved all want very badly to get these unclaimed funds to the rightful owners. Why? Because not doing so can be extremely costly to the business that doesn't do so. By law the states can charge fees such as interest and penalties and if there is evidence this could bring on an investigation which could cost the company up to 50K per audit! A company that doesn't comply with state and or federal government rules and doesn't file a yearly report can very much places itself in danger of being investigated.
For the general public the subject of unclaimed property or unclaimed money means that it is likely that an individual is actually due money or has unclaimed property sitting somewhere waiting for them to claim it. It is estimated that most Americans have unclaimed property or assets waiting to be claimed. That is almost too incredible to believe but it is a fact.
There is not one simple database or government agency that one can go to to look forinquire for funds. Looking for missing money or lost money can be very difficult and frustrating unless one can find a simple, easy to use service. You can search for free