Treasure Hunt: Finding Your Unclaimed Property (from WSJ)

APRIL 28, 2011.
How to Find Unclaimed Property: From 'Tracers' to Websites, Many Ways to Snare Money .
By VERONICA DAGHER

If you feel you may be due unclaimed property, or just want to find out, there are several ways to hunt it down.

Some people discover that they have unclaimed funds only after a finder or "tracer" notifies them they have unclaimed
property and offers to help them retrieve it for a fee, says
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial-aid website FinAid.org.
He also runs the free site www.unclaimedproperty.

.Unclaimed life-insurance proceeds have come into the spotlight as regulators are looking into whether insurers are turning over these funds to states in a timely fashion.

How quickly companies need to hand over these funds varies by state, and the total amount of unclaimed funds is in the billions.

New York alone has received roughly $400,287,736 in unclaimed life insurance policies since 2000, says Vanessa Lockel, a spokeswoman for the Office of the State Comptroller. She says the state has refunded about $64,772,228.

Here are some ways to claim your money:

• More Than Insurance: Life-insurance proceeds are just one type of unclaimed property. Other examples could include a refund check from a utility company, stock dividend checks that have been going to a stale address or proceeds from the estate of a relative who died without a will and whose estate took several years to be settled in court.

• How to Start: Mr. Kantrowitz recommends people begin their search at www.missingmoney.com, a free database operated by ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse, which is owned by Xerox Corp. and provides unclaimed property support services to state governments.

The site searches unclaimed property websites of several states where users can search by last and first name to find funds. If no unclaimed funds show up, Mr.
Kantrowitz says, a searcher should individually check the databases
of any of the states they have lived in.

He recommends that they conduct a new search every year, because it sometimes takes a few years for states to post records of missing funds.

• Filing for Funds: Once someone discovers they have missing funds, they can file a claim with their state's unclaimed property office.

If the money is in someone else's name, they will likely have to provide proof they are the beneficiary, such as a copy of the deceased's will, Mr. Kantrowitz says.

Other places to look include Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which has a database for unclaimed pension benefits, and the Internal Revenue Service, which may be holding unclaimed income tax refund money.

If you suspect that you missed a refund, contact the IRS directly.

• Tax Watch: Speaking of taxes, anyone counting on a windfall from unclaimed property should keep in mind that they may have to fork part of it over. If you find and receive the proceeds of long-lost stock which a state has liquidated, for instance, you may face a tax bill.

Write to Veronica Dagher at veronica.dagher@dowjones.com