Maine, the Pine Tree State, offers more than just the terrifyingly cold winters that the northeastern most part of the United States is known for. As of June 2007, the State Treasurer’s Office was holding over $131 million in Maine unclaimed money, divided up over more than 540 thousand accounts. That’s a lot of clams, or lobsters in Maine’s case.
Abandoned property is deemed “unclaimed” after it sits dormant for a specific period of time. Every state has its own unique dormancy periods for each type of property. In Maine, dormancy periods range from 1 year to 15 years, varying by account type, but the majority of Maine dormancy periods are three years. State law requires that assets be handed over to the state for safe keeping after the appropriate dormancy period has passed. At this point, the state treasurer is in charge of adding the record to their system, making it available for the true owner to locate and claim it.
Though tough to believe, across the country there really are tens of billions in unclaimed funds, waiting to be tracked down by the rightful owners. Missing money is often dismissed as a scam or myth because people just can’t accept that Americans could really just forget about or abandon that much money. All citizens need to do is contact their state treasurer to get confirmation that this cash are out there.
One main reason that unclaimed assets totals keep on growing in all states is because the states are consistently inefficient when it comes to giving these properties back to the citizens. A lot of states have stepped up efforts to put money back in the pockets of the people it is owed to, yet the amount handed over to the state each year continues to vastly outpace the amount given back to the people.
Aside from the fact that the majority of people still are not aware of the joys of claiming forgotten money, those that are usually do not have a clue how to search. Every unclaimed funds site is different and only a few are actually legitimate and maintain accurate records. Even state records are consistently inaccurate due to the fact that they are not updated in real time. While funds are handed over to the state constantly, there will be no searchable record until an employee physically adds the record to the system. On top of that, as noted, there are so many different dormancy periods that assets are always being handed over, so Maine’s records are constantly needing to be updated.
The number one rule in looking for missing cash is to search regularly or one can never be confident in the completeness of their search. But inaccurate records are only the beginning of the hurdles that often get in the way of average people just starting out on their search for forgotten properties.
Learning tactics from experts in tracking down unclaimed funds can jumpstart your search and help reunite you with your cash quicker than the average, uninformed citizen starting out without any direction. People really hoping to explore all possible claims would be smart to educate themselves before starting the process of locating abandoned assets.
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