The state of Connecticut has quite a bit of unclaimed money being safeguarded that belongs to residents.
According to a study by SmartAsset, a financial technology company, there is more than $25 billion in unclaimed property in just 10 out of 50 states.
Unclaimed property includes savings or checking accounts, uncashed checks, matured CD accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, travelers’ checks, money orders and proceeds from life insurance properties. Banks, credit unions, insurance companies, brokerage firms, utility companies and businesses can be holders of unclaimed property.
Unclaimed property is turned over to the state treasurer until the rightful owners are located if a business entity in control of the property loses contact with a customer for three to five years. When the rightful owner or heir is identified, the state returns the money.
New York tops the list, with $13 billion in unclaimed property. That’s a total of $664.06 in unclaimed property per person living in the state–which is about 19.6 million people. Connecticut comes in seventh on the list, with $615 million in unclaimed property. With a state population of nearly 3.6 million, that’s $171.20 per capita.
The next closest state per capita after New York is Massachusetts, which has $2.4 billion in unclaimed property, or $361 per person. The rest of the top 10 includes Nevada, Rhode Island, Virginia, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona and Maine. It’s important to note that California’s total amount of unclaimed property is actually second on the list–$6.9 billion–but because the population is so much greater than the other states–38 million–the per capita amount of unclaimed property is much smaller.
In the fiscal year that tended on June 30, the Unclaimed Property Division of the office of the state treasurer returned $64 million to 20,897 rightful owners, according to the office of the treasurer’s website. However, $103 million in new unclaimed property was added to the total amount. The $615 million that is unclaimed belongs to 1,167,555 rightful owners.
By law, businesses are supposed to report unclaimed property within 30 days of the end of a fiscal year, but of the $103 million turned over to the state, only $78 million was voluntarily reported. The state retrieved $4 million from examining company records and $21 million from the sale of shares of securities.
To find out if your name is on the list in Connecticut, click here.
