Do You Have Unclaimed Property?

We have seen this scenario play out many times – someone finds money on the ground and turns it in to a nearby store or public building (i.e., city hall, or police station) hoping it reunites with its owner. But what happens if we are the one missing something (unclaimed property)? How do we get it back?

Unclaimed property, or abandoned property, is property or accounts within financial institutions or businesses in which no activity or contact with the owner of the property (both individuals and businesses) has taken place for a period of one year or longer. Unclaimed property can be both tangible and intangible with some of the most common forms being bank accounts, safety deposit box contents, and refunds/overpayments.

So how do you find out if you have unclaimed property and how do you go about retrieving it? One way is to go to the official state website of your residence and clock on their unclaimed property search tab. For those that may move around a lot, or do business in various states, this could be time consuming. A simpler method is to go to unclaimed.org which is the official website of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. From there you can search to see if you (or your business if you are a business owner) have unclaimed property and use their interactive map to access the proper state website for each applicable state. You can then follow that state’s procedure for making a claim on the unclaimed property, and receive payment based on the processes set forth by that state.

With offices in Williston and Rutland Vermont, Davis & Hodgdon CPAs has been assisting Vermont’s residents and entrepreneurs for more than 30 years. Our proactive approach makes us more than an accounting firm – we counsel our clients on a wide range of financial and management issues, resulting in better decision making and more confidence in their success. Click here to contact us today and find out how we can help you!

Article authored by Michael Hamilton, Associate Accountant, Davis & Hodgdon CPAs

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