Best Results Organizing

Whether you spend a small fortune over each Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend or you’re super-cautious with your dollars and cents throughout the year, I bet you’d like to have more money. And I bet you’d particularly like to have more of your own money — money that has been kept from you for some reason — back in your own pocket.

MISSING MONEY AND UNCLAIMED PROPERTY, REDUX

One of my most popular posts is one I published almost three years ago: Lost & Found: Recover Unclaimed Money, Property, and Savings Bonds. In it, I explained the basics of unclaimed property. To borrow from myself:

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The term unclaimed property is what you’ll hear most often when searching for lost money in various types of accounts. Unclaimed property usually refers to funds that a government (federal, state, or local) or business owes you because you’ve, quite literally, left it unclaimed.

It’s possible that you’re so organized with your paperwork that you feel affronted that I’ve implied you might have just haphazardly left money sitting around. But I’m not saying you’re absent-mindedly leaving piles of cash wrapped in newspapers like Uncle Billy in It’s a Wonderful Life. (By the way, that $8000 deposit that ended up in Mr. Potter’s hands would be worth $121,762 in 2023 $132,913.23 in 2025! Maybe Uncle Billy should have tied the money to one of those strings around his fingers.)

Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy, searching the bank’s trash cans for the lost Savings & Loan deposit. Let’s boo Mr. Potter!

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I posited the various reasons why money gets separated from its rightful owner.

Sometimes, you’re due a refund, but the refund sits so long that a company loses track of you. Several years ago, when I began working with a client, I had sorted through all of his bills and paperwork to figure out what we could discard, what should be filed, and what required action. Typically, that last category involves paying a bill, but in his case, we found that he was owed money. He and his late wife had opened a retail store credit card to purchase a service they’d later canceled. A prorated amount was returned to the credit card, but because they never used the card again, the balance just sat there, neither accruing interest nor being used, statement after statement.

Happily, in this case, one call to the credit card company (and many, many transfers between departments) later, and within a week, he had a check for the amount. Better yet, that credit card company doesn’t send statements in months when there’s no (positive or negative) balance, so it also meant that he had less paper clutter! 

Other times, you and your money are parted because you’ve done a magic trick and disappeared. Think of times when you’ve put down money, such as a security deposit for an apartment or a local utility account. The landlord or company holds your money as security, or collateral, in case you skip out on your payments. In many cases, that money is held in an interest-bearing account.

In the best case scenario, when you terminate your lease and cancel your utilities, you get back your deposit plus a little bonus (of interest) for your troubles. The problem is that too often (and particularly when we are younger), we’re so focused on where we’re headed that we miss out on what we are owed. However, if you left no forwarding address (and remember, in the olden days, when we moved, our phone numbers did not move with us), landlords and utility companies had no way to reach out and return that money.

In theory, that money is/should always be turned it over to the state.

These are only the most common examples of money that may have been left behind when you jetted off to the next part of your life. And, of course, most of us know the frustration of someone else not being clear about what or where valuable funds may be.

 

There are a variety of situations where your money might go unclaimed. Consider this a mental checklist to jog your memory of money that may have disappeared or been forgotten.

Financial Accounts

• Abandoned bank accounts
• Abandoned credit union accounts

It’s not uncommon to calculate how many outstanding payments will need to clear and leave only a bit more than that amount in a bank or credit union account you plan to close. The payments clear, and then the forgotten accounts often lay dormant, occasionally collecting interest.

Most bank and credit union accounts require some sort of activity — even just the deposit of $1, once per year — to be considered active. Banks won’t put in too terribly much effort before turning money over to the state.

Employment-Related Funds

It’s one thing to quit a job and leave behind forgotten leftovers in the break room fridge, but so many people manage to ghost their own money. 

• Un-cashed checks or failed direct deposits — I’ve had clients who had been so overwhelmed and overworked that when they switched jobs, they forgot to cash their final paychecks. (Yes, even though most people are regularly paid via direct deposit, final checks are often issue with old-fashioned paper checks.)

I have also seen people fail to notice or remember — in the chaos of moving — that a final check was never actually direct-deposited; or perhaps that payment was issued, but the direct deposit failed to go through because the old bank account was already closed. I’ve seen all of these! And other payments may go un-deposited. Un-cashed checks might include:

• • paychecks
  • employment bonuses
  • refunds of expenses submitted to your employer
  • sales commissions
  • vendor checks

Poor Milton. They kept moving his desk, and the Payroll Department could never find him.

Investment Instruments

It’s common for people to have chaotic investments. I try to get clients to list all of their accounts, but often have to play detective.

When you’re fresh out of college, you may have a few savings bonds (far from their maturity dates) and nothing else to speak of. However, after a variety of jobs (particularly if you started working before the era of 401(k)s and Roth IRAs), you may have picked up (and then failed to roll over) a smattering of retirement accounts.

If you came into adulthood before mutual funds were really a thing, your investment portfolio may include a random collection of individual stocks, some of which are in DRIPs (dividend re-investment plans) and others where you randomly get checks for $1.53 or $4.52…which you try to remember to deposit and then find smushed in the pocket of your winter coat on the first cold day of the season.

Consider the following investment instruments you may have forgotten that you even had after a lifetime of cross-country moves:

• 401(k)s
• Stocks
• Mutual fund holdings
• Bonds
• Other securities that were never transferred or claimed
• Dividend checks
• Fractional share cash-out checks
• Savings bonds — If you’ve lost your savings bonds, be sure to read the latter part of Lost & Found: Recover Unclaimed Money, Property, and Savings Bonds. 
• Israeli bonds — Note, if you do not have your original paper bonds, be prepared to jump through some hoops!

People change addresses, firms merge or dissolve and then change names, stocks split or get sold off — whether they lost track of you or you lost track of them, it’s all worth tracking down.

Insurance Policies

Have you ever seen Gerber Life Insurance — yes, like the Gerber baby food. It’s whole life insurance advertised to parents to give their children life-long guaranteed coverage. Debating the pros and cons of getting life insurance for children is beyond the scope of this post; however, paying attention to organizing the documentation/paperwork for such policies is key.

After having been a professional organizer now for almost a quarter of a century, I have worked with many clients who, when they clear out their elderly parents’ homes, find random references or partial documents for those kinds of baby life insurance policies. In every case, the cash value of those policies have long-since stopped increasing in value.

Sometimes, they’ve been able to cash out directly but often the policies have been sold and resold to other insurers who have lost track of the policy-holders and turned the money over to the applicable state governments. (Are you noticing a trend? Even companies with everything organized by 21st-century computers don’t want to keep up with the nickels and dimes of seemingly abandoned accounts.)

Insurance-related money may be owed to you in the form of:

• Matured insurance policies
• Terminated insurance policies
• Life insurance payouts
• Annuities
• Unclaimed insurance refunds — If the beneficiaries of insurance policies fail to claim death benefits, or policy-holders never cash refund checks (either because they never receive them or because they pile the mail on top of the microwave and it gets lost), that money goes unclaimed.

Legal Balances

If you won a million-dollar judgment, Paper Doll suspects you’d probably notice if you forgot to accept payment, but there are a variety of funds (usually far less than seven figures) that are legally yours but may be forgotten. When you go spelunking for unclaimed property, you may find you are due money for:

• Trust distributions
• Inheritance-related funds — This is a good reminder that your heirs can’t claim assets that they don’t know exist, so make sure you provide detailed records for your loved ones. For more on that, check out two classic Paper Doll posts: Reference Files Master Class (Part 2) — Financial and Legal Papers and How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents
• Unclaimed court deposits
• Escrow funds from real estate deals
• Proceeds from legal settlements or judgments — These may include class-action payouts, money returned to you for bond or bail, garnished wages meant to cover unpaid child support payments. 

A client’s ex-husband once owed her a significant amount of back child support; she couldn’t collect because when the ex had arranged to be paid “under the table” so as not to have his wages garnished. However, when he won a significant judgment in an unrelated lawsuit, my client was able to receive what was due to her and her children because she had made the effort to keep the state agency overseeing child support enforcement updated whenever she moved.

• Royalties owed for minerals, oil, gas, or other assets you own. (Your Grandma once owned land in Oklahoma or Texas? Think Dallas, but with more paperwork and fewer shoulder pads.)
• Royalties owed for creative works, like published books or music, recorded performances, etc.

Have you ever heard of Sixto “Sugar Man” Rodriguez? He was a Mexican-American musician in the late 1960s and 1970s, whose songs focused on the societal difficulties facing those living in poverty. When his albums sold poorly in the United States, he ended his music career. Unbeknownst to Rodriquez, his music was so popular and influential in South Africa that it was said he sold more records there than Elvis Presley. But for decades, he wasn’t aware of, or paid royalties for, his talents — as told in 2012’s Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, fans even mistakenly thought he was no longer alive!

 

If you’re due royalties make sure you are findable!   

FIND GENERAL UNCLAIMED PROPERTY OR FUNDS

As I explained in the original post three years ago, there’s not one central database for all unclaimed property. Generally, unless the money you’re seeking is in a special category (see further below), you should start your search in the unclaimed property office for each state in which you have lived.

Begin with Unclaimed.org, the website of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. (For detailed instructions for your search, see my original post.)

To search for multiple states simultaneously head directly to MissingMoney.com.

MissingMoney.com allows you to just type a first and last name, and all possibilities for that name, across all state databases, will come up.

FIND MISSING RETIREMENT AND EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

Do you vaguely recall having some funds trickling into a pension or 401(k), but you’ve had several jobs, homes, and kids since then? Is it all fuzzy?

If you’ve kept meticulous records, you may have files about your old retirement accounts; if you’ve kept mediocre records, you may have an old address book with the names of former colleagues whom you could find on Facebook or LinkedIn, and ask if they remember what retirement benefits you were supposed to have. However, there are more official methods for tracking down your hard-earned benefits.

Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database

Did you know that the US Department of Labor’s Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database can help you find your lost or missing retirement funds? Run by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the database should be your first stop if you or a loved one has lost track of an old pension or 401(k). Per the website:

EBSA is helping America’s workers and beneficiaries search for retirement plans that may still owe them benefits by establishing a public Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database through the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. 

This database serves as a centralized location to find lost or forgotten benefits and get information on how to obtain those funds. Learn about the tools and resources available for you to recover your hard-earned benefits.

Visit lostandfound.dol.gov — but note that to access the database, you’ll need a valid ID-Proofed Login.gov account, first. 

Once in, you’ll be able to search for any retirement plans that were a) linked to your Social Security number and b) sponsored by private-sector employers and unions. The database includes:

• Defined-benefit pension plans — any kind of benefit plan that guarantees either a lump-sum payment when you retire or a lifetime monthly payment, like an annuity
• Defined-contribution plans — accounts that employees fund during the years that they work, such as 401(k)s, and which continue to grow while they work and after they retire.

The Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database doesn’t include Social Security benefits,  personal investments like individual retirement accounts (IRAs) or retirement plans sponsored or overseen by religious organizations or government entities. So, if you’re a senator or a nun (or, y’know, a court clerk or church secretary), this database isn’t for you.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Have you ever worked for a private-sector company or organization whose retirement plan went kaput?

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Database, is responsible for holding any unclaimed benefits for current or employees where the retirement plan ended and not everyone got their payout. 

Search the database to find your benefit plan; just enter your name and the last four digits of your Social Security number. Once you verify that PBGC is holding your benefits, follow the instructions for submitting documentation to claim them. (Once again, a plug for getting your Very Important Papers organized).

Other Retirement Benefits Solutions

The National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits (NRURB) operates a free database to assist former employees, employers, and plan managers to find one another and ease the problem of distributing retirement benefits that have been forgotten (by the accountholder) or abandoned (by the plan administrator). They use Department of Labor data and information from employers to help identify lost and/or unpaid benefits.

Speaking of abandoned plans, the Department of Labor’s EBSA also operates an Abandoned Plan Search database to help you find a plan abandoned by its administrator. (Maybe those administrators need to hire some professional organizers?)

If you’re still having trouble securing your company-sponsored retirement benefits, you may want to contact the non-profit Pension Rights Center. They operate the U.S. Administration for Community Living’s Pension Counseling and Information Program, and if your company or pension plan operates in one of the thirty states they serve, you may be able to access their free legal services. 

Find Unpaid Wages through WOW

Did you know that if an employer breaks labor laws, the Department of Labor’s Workers Owed Wages program is empowered to try to recover your back wages?

 

If you think you may be owed back wages from your employer, search the WoW database. Don’t dilly-dally, though, as they only hold unpaid back wages for three years.

Find the database at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow.

FIND UNCLAIMED LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES

Unclaimed insurance payments are typically turned over to the state. However, there are some situations where money may be owed related to federal insurance policies.

• VA Life Insurance Unclaimed Funds — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a database for searching unclaimed insurance funds. The VA holds onto money it owes to current or former policy holders or beneficiaries of those policies whom they’ve been unable to locate.

When my father, a WWII veteran, died in 2018, I had access to the paperwork related to a life insurance policy he was given upon leaving the Army at the end of the war. Contrary to expectations when dealing with government agencies, I was able to resolve all of my questions with one call. However, had I not had access to any of the paperwork, the link above would have been my first stop.

Note: the database doesn’t include funds from Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) or Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) policies from 1965 to the present day. 

• FHA-Insurance Refunds – Homeowners who previously had an FHA-insured mortgage may be eligible for refunds issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Click on the link above to access the HUD database. Scroll down and provide your name, FHA case number, city, and state.

FIND UNCLAIMED MONEY FROM BANKING & INVESTMENTS

Did your bank fail? What about your credit union? Were you scammed by someone like Bernie Madoff?

• If you had money in an FDIC-insured bank that failed, you can search for your unclaimed funds at https://closedbanks.fdic.gov/funds/.
• If your money was in a failed credit union liquidated by the National Credit Union Administration, the NCUA.gov site’s Unclaimed Deposits database can connect you to your funds.
• Were you an investor parted from your money as a result of a bad-faith investment manager? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lists “enforcement cases” where individuals or companies money to their investors. You can check the status of distributions to harmed investors at SEC Claims Funds. 

THINK OUTSIDE THE MONEY BOX

All of the categories described above cover unclaimed funds that someone else is holding. However, you may have money, or something just as good as money, hiding in your drawers and glove compartments and under the piles of papers on your desk: 

• Unused loyalty points, rewards, and frequent flyer miles — These represent quasi-lost money, things with value but only if you use them. Bear in mind that some unredeemed points, rewards, and miles have expiration dates or may be considered abandoned if you don’t use them (or the apps/accounts) for a long while.
• Unredeemed gift certificates, store credits, refunds, or vouchers from retailers service-based companies. Depending on the state in which you live, they may be treated as unclaimed property if they go unused too long. Remember that year Aunt Gertrude told you that she schlepped out in a snow storm to get you that gift card for for Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and a Toys ‘R Us gift card for your tiny human? Uh-oh. Too late now. Stores close or restructure, and value goes poof!
• Contents of safe-deposit boxes — When people move or pass away, families may forget about the contents of old safe deposit boxes, and it’s very hard to reunite tangible property with original owners or beneficiaries. 

In short: unclaimed property is often “anything owed to you that you forgot existed.” Take time to search for whatever may be owed to you or loved ones who can no longer search for themselves.

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Remember, unclaimed property comes in many forms, from many possible sources.

As always, when you keep good (and organized) records (with account numbers and names of institutions, and your own addresses over the years), the search and claim processes will be easier. When searching databases, consider that your identity (or that of a deceased loved one) may not have been quite so organized — check name variations: with and without maiden names, nicknames, initials vs. middle names, etc.) 

Good luck finding unexpected funds!