Are you richer than you think? How to find out—and what experts say to do if you are
States are holding billions of dollars in unclaimed property, and some of it may be yours.
TL;DR
- Americans collectively have approximately $70 billion in unclaimed property.
- States returned over $4 billion in unclaimed property in the fiscal year ending June 2023.
- MissingMoney.com is a NAUPA-endorsed site for searching unclaimed property nationwide.
- Claiming unclaimed property requires proving ownership and may involve state-specific rules.
- Found money can trigger psychological biases like "fuzzy mental accounting" or the "endowment effect."
- To avoid misusing found money, experts suggest earmarking it for specific financial goals beforehand.