Unclaimed Property

Welcome to the Great Georgia Treasure Hunt. The Department states they have launched an unclaimed property site on the web where you can initiate your own search for unclaimed property at this site.

The Department of Revenue said they have over $180 million in property consisting of assets they received from banks, insurance companies, utilities, dissolution of a business, fiduciary, and from the courts and other public and political organizations. Other types of unclaimed property remitted to the State as custodian are: unpaid wages, sums owing on traveler’s checks, safe deposit boxes, bequeathed property, and intangible property such as stocks and bonds.

The holding period for the time that property is considered abandoned ranges from one to fifteen years depending on the type of property. Unclaimed property is reported and remitted to the Revenue Department annually after the holding period has expired. If you search the Revenue Department for any unclaimed property it is advisable to do a search using various combinations of your name. Also, bear in mind that assets may be listed in a maiden name. The Revenue Department said some of the unclaimed property results from reasons such as marriage break ups, misspelled names, business bankrupts, relocation of jobs, address changes and deaths. It would be advisable to search to see if any of your family members that have unclaimed property. If you find some unclaimed property that you own there is a form for you to complete to prove that it is your property.

Every State in America has an unclaimed property home site. If you or one your relatives ever lived in another State you can do a search on another State’s by signing into the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators at http://unclaimed.org.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Originally published in the September 1, 2007 Newsletter

Reviewed April 2017

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