Do you know that one out of five Mississippians have unclaimed money due to them? If you are, or have been a resident of the state or have had any dealing with businesses located there or with the state government, you could become a Mississippi resident who could profit from an unclaimed money search.

According to the State Treasurer's Office, the state has over $38 million in unclaimed funds lying with it. That's a lot of money, especially in a state where families are still recovering from losses caused by hurricanes over the last few years. So what's stopping the Mississippi resident from searching for money that could rightfully be his? Actually, nothing is except for a great deal of ignorance about the subject.

When people move to a new place they often forget to leave a forwarding address. This means that the Post Office has no way of contacting them for delivery of mail. The undelivered mail is returned to the sender who again has no way of contacting the person. So the money lies there until what is called the ?dormancy period? is over at which time it is deposited with the state government for safe keeping until the rightful owners are either located or come forward to make their claim.

This unclaimed money could be in any form ? undelivered salary checks, share dividends, tax refunds, gift certificates, forgotten savings and bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other such assets. And the money need not be yours. It could be from an inheritance you don't know about.

If you think it can't happen to you, here's something to think about. A Vietnam veteran living in Mississippi who was down on his luck found that he had old company stocks he had forgotten about worth nearly $1 million. A Mississippi resident found a $30,000 investment his father had forgotten to tell him about. There have been cases of people struggling to rebuild their lives after losing everything when Katrina struck who found that hundreds of thousands of dollars were due to them.

Go to an unclaimed money database and conduct a free search. All you have to do on the search is enter your name and it will tell you if there is any money owed to your name. You will need to look at each unclaimed money account to see which are truly yours.

To tell if an account is truly yours simply look at the information provided on the missing money account such as the full name, address, original holder of the account and other information that would let you know it is yours.

Once you find missing money accounts that are yours you will need to claim the money. This is done very simply by filling out a form and including a copy of proof of identity such as a copy of your drivers license, etc.

Many people don't realize that you can search on behalf of family members and friends too!

Additionally you should check the names of your family members who have passed away. It is quite common they have missing money accounts that are still unclaimed. These unclaimed money accounts are due to the heirs of the deceased and should be delivered to the rightful recipients. Your family will surely appreciate your efforts to ensure this occurs.