HARRISBURG- Treasurer Stacy Garrity encouraged all Pennsylvanians to celebrate National Unclaimed Property Day by searching Treasury’s website to see if any of the $4.5 billion in unclaimed property being safeguarded by Treasury belongs to them. More than one in ten Pennsylvanians has unclaimed property, and the average value of a claim is about $1,600.
“I’ve traveled to all 67 counties across our great state every year I’ve been in office, and I always encourage people to search for unclaimed property for themselves, their families and any organization they may belong to,” Treasurer Garrity said. “National Unclaimed Property Day is a perfect time to see if any money is owed to you. We’re safeguarding more than $4.5 billion in unclaimed property – but this money doesn’t belong to the state, it belongs to hardworking Pennsylvanians. I want to get it back into the right hands.”
Treasurer Garrity also released this video on YouTube and social media highlighting Unclaimed Property Day and encouraging Pennsylvanians to search today.
Unclaimed property can include things like dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance policies, contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes and more. State law requires businesses to report unclaimed property to Treasury after three years of dormancy.
Since taking office, Treasurer Garrity has improved the unclaimed property program and increased returns in many ways, including:
- The first major upgrade in 15 years to Treasury’s unclaimed property system in 2021 which streamlined the process, and allowed many claims to be approved more quickly;
- The ability to return many claims via direct deposit implemented in 2022;
- An initiative to return unclaimed property to counties, municipalities and school districts which has resulted in returns to date of more than $16 million to 74 entities; and
- The addition of a first-ever Director of Outreach and Marketing, along with regional outreach staff to reach Pennsylvanians in every part of the state.
In the last fiscal year, ending June 30, 2023, Treasury returned the most unclaimed property ever in a single year – almost $274 million.
To search for unclaimed property, visit patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property. If you have lived outside of Pennsylvania, you can easily search other states’ unclaimed property databases by visiting MissingMoney.com.
To help protect your money and to keep it from becoming unclaimed property in the first place, take the following steps:
- Inform your financial institutions of any address changes;
- Communicate with financial institutions at least once every three years;
- Keep up-to-date records of bank accounts, stocks, life insurance policies, safe deposit boxes, and other financial details;
- Let a trusted family member or advisor know where you keep your financial records; and
- Cash all checks as you receive them.
