$80 million waiting to be claimed

Too much can never be said when encouraging people to search for unclaimed property. In Nebraska, there is still some $80 million in unclaimed assets that sits and waits to be claimed. While a search database for Nebraska's unclaimed property can be accessed from treasurer.org, there is also a nation-wide site which allows visitors to search unclaimed assets in all 50 states. Missingmoney.com works in conjunction with state governments in helping to promote unclaimed property searches.

According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA,) there is a staggering 33.8 billion dollars that remains stagnant and abandoned in the US today. Uncashed paychecks, uncollected security deposits, forgotten accounts, abandoned insurance takings, undeliverable refunds...the list goes on and on. Often times, these are assets that owners never even knew existed. It may sound like free money, but it is quite real; money that has belonged to you all along.

States are striving to become more proactive when it comes to returning these lost assets. Our office in Nebraska, for example, has returned over $47 million since I took office in 2007; this is more than any past state treasurer. Missingmoney.com exists to aid in the process of making searching for unclaimed property more efficient. It is a national database that aids business and individuals to find and recover unclaimed property free of charge. It is the only private online database that has been approved by NAUPA. Since this money belongs to you, and not to the state, it is my belief that searching and attaining your possible unclaimed assets should be simple and straightforward. You should not have difficulty locating what is already yours.

Roughly 1 in every 8 (almost 200,000) Nebraskans currently has unclaimed property. So far in 2010, the average claim has been close to $800. In the past year, an astounding $16 million was newly reported to our Unclaimed Property Division; new properties are reported each day. To put those numbers into perspective, Nebraska's Red Willow county alone currently holds nearly $200,000 in unclaimed assets. In Dawes County, there is over $86,000 unclaimed, and over $509,000 In Dodge Country. There is upwards of $168,000 in unclaimed property in Saline County, and over $35,000 in Johnson County. You have nothing to lose by inquiring, but you certainly may have something to gain.

Take advantage of the large amount of information on missingmoney.com by searching in any state you may have lived or worked. I would recommend searching not just your own name, but for the names of family members and deceased individuals, as well as any businesses you may have owned over the years. For more information on unclaimed property in Nebraska, visit treasurer.org.