November 4, 2002

1:47 AM

Ever wonder if your great grandmother kept her pin money in an account no one knew about? Your state treasurer has those unclaimed funds just waiting for you to find them. [more inside]
posted by xyzzy (9 comments total)

I saw this web site on a Dateline re-run early this morning and decided to give it a shot. I got hits on three of my four deceased grandparents in five minutes. Pretty wild.
posted by xyzzy at 1:47 AM on November 4, 2002

"My name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me."
I'm guessing state governments allocated some money to create web sites around 1996, and now won't pay for anything other than data entry. Because I am avoiding update work on a web site at this very moment, I did some searching for you:
Best looking state Treasurer mugshot: Massachussetts
Weirdest web fu: New Hampshire on OSX/IE. After I use it once to go to the funds search screen, the dhtml menu is literally creeping and shimmying around like it wants to escape my browser.
posted by planetkyoto at 2:54 AM on November 4, 2002

Well, what do you know? My great grandma's got some insurance money that was never claimed.

Think grandpa'll give me a cut of it for finding that out?
posted by katieinshoes at 6:15 AM on November 4, 2002

missingmoney.com (see planetkyoto's post) is another site that offers the same service. I found some money in my grandmother's name and she let me have the money.
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:37 AM on November 4, 2002

I had to do some research on this topic for a client recently. Here are a few more resources - an unclaimed property checklist - you'd be surprised at the types of accounts that can be overlooked; also, an extensive list of web links, including links to all the state authorities who handle unclaimed property. You can go to one an advertised service and pay, or there's quite a bit of research you can do on your own with a little elbow grease.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:21 AM on November 4, 2002

Woo hoo! $28 for me. Biscuits for supper tonight.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 7:58 AM on November 4, 2002

My cousin has $113.10 coming from WalMart.

She better take me to dinner :)
posted by mutagen at 8:35 AM on November 4, 2002

I scored $75 from an old utility deposit. Hot diggity!
posted by sp dinsmoor at 9:01 AM on November 4, 2002

Bank Error in my favor -- collect $100.
posted by uftheory at 9:57 AM on November 5, 2002