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As it turns out, millions of us are owed billions of dollars from all sorts of companies, government, and financial institutions across the United States…
And we either forgot to claim it — or didn’t even realize it was there at all.
Luckily, it’s surprisingly easy to hunt down that money with the sites listed below. For some of them, you may also need to enter your Social Security Number (SSN), but oftentimes you can search with just your name, then claim what’s owed to you.
Since it’s tax season, it’s the perfect time to “settle up” with the IRS on previous years, as well as your current refund you may be owed. Then, you can put the magic of compound interest to work on that money in a high-yield savings or an investing account.
But before we get into that, there are a couple of other sources of “missing” money that may not be on your radar — but are shockingly common in the United States.
Old 401(k)s
Left a job recently? During the pandemic, perhaps?
If you had a 401(k) there, simply let it ride, and maybe moved on to your new one at a new company… It’s a very common, understandable situation. After all, the funds are still in your name. You can always figure out what to do with them later.
Problem is, those funds are probably sitting in a “rollover” IRA account – and getting eaten away by fees.
If that 401(k) balance is fairly small — a few thousand dollars — then your previous employer can roll it into these IRAs. The employer is responsible for managing this money wisely, so they often roll it into something very conservative, like a money market fund. However, those pay far lower yields than what the IRA company takes out in “expense fees” over time.
So, if this could be happening to you, but you’re not sure what your former employer did with your old 401(k) money, try UnclaimedRetirementBenefits.com to see if you can hunt it down and reclaim it. That way, you can redirect it to your new 401(k) — or at least find better investments for that money.
2021 was a particularly popular time to quit and move on: so popular that economists now call it the “Great Resignation.” Which is probably how old, abandoned 401(k)s climbed to more than $1.6 trillion. Meanwhile, even more 401(k) accounts are now eligible for an “involuntary rollover” to one of these random IRAs.
A new law requires the U.S. Department of Labor to create a Retirement Savings Lost and Found database, which is expected to come together this year.
In the meantime, you’ll want to check UnclaimedRetirementBenefits.com, which is a national registry led by one of the biggest retirement distribution payment providers: PenChecks.
Unclaimed Money and Property
Another good place to start is MissingMoney.com, brought to you by the National Association of State Treasurers.
See, if a company or a financial institution owes you any amount of cash money — but did not reach you about it after a certain “dormancy period,” such as one year – then they’re required by law to turn it over to the state government.
This applies to physical property, certificates of deposit (CDs), annuities and stocks as well.
For most of us, it’s actual money, like security deposits that never made it to us because a company or landlord didn’t have our forwarding address. I personally found and claimed a couple of old paychecks from an on-campus job during my college years.
As many as 1 in 7 people have unclaimed property available — they just don’t know to look for it, or how. Search directly on your state’s unclaimed property website… or head to MissingMoney.com to type in your name just once and search all states at once.
Tax Returns from the IRS or the State
Like old 401(k)s, unclaimed tax returns also seem to have really snowballed during the pandemic. In 2020, for example, Americans left behind about $1.5 billionat the IRS for tax year 2019.
The deadline to claim that batch of unclaimed refunds passed in July 2023… But there’s still time to claim 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 tax refunds.
If you filed for any of those years but never got paid, go to the IRS Where’s My Refund page. Also turn in their Change of Address Form if that could be the issue.
If you did not file because you figured it wasn’t worthwhile if you didn’t owe anything…or simply forgot… then don’t leave those tax credits on the table. The Earned Income Tax Credit alone is worth anywhere from $600 to $7,430. Not to mention the Child Tax Credit ($2,000 per kid), education credits, clean energy and EV credits, and more.
That takes care of your federal refund — and you can find a similar government website to help you track down your state refund at taxadmin.org.
Beneficiary of Life Insurance or Pensions
You’d be surprised how many unclaimed life-insurance payouts are out there, too. Since 2016, over $6.7 billion of them were lying “dormant” — until the Life Insurance Policy Locator Service helped those beneficiaries claim that money.
That site is run by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), made up of regulators in state governments tasked with keeping insurance companies “honest” about getting life insurance benefits into the right hands after a death.
If there could have been a life insurance policy for a deceased loved one at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), you could also check their Unclaimed Funds database.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is another U.S. federal agency, has lots of ways to find military pensions, too, and other types of pensions that may offer survivor’s benefits.
U.S. “Treasury Hunt”
Speaking of family members, a lot of them may have taken the old-school route of purchasing a physical, paper bond certificate from the U.S. Treasury. And now there is interest or principal due on your behalf.
But if you’re not sure where that bond ended up, try the U.S. Treasury website for this: cleverly named Treasury Hunt.
That’s for bonds which have already matured. For bonds that might not have reached maturity, try this webpage of theirs to replace it or convert to electronic form.
Sources:
O’Connor, B. (2023, December 23). Your Old 401(k): Out of Sight, Out of Mind and Out of Money. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/23/business/401k-rollover-retirement.html
Lambert, T. (2023, January 12). The Great Resignation in the United States: A Study of Labor Market Segmentation. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07360932.2022.2164599
National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. About the National Registry. Retrieved from https://unclaimedretirementbenefits.com/about
National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, a Network of the National Association of State Treasurers. Who We Are. Retrieved from https://unclaimed.org/who-we-are/
National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, a Network of the National Association of State Treasurers. What is unclaimed property? Retrieved from https://unclaimed.org/what-is-unclaimed-property/
Internal Revenue Service. (2023, June 30). IRS last call for taxpayers to claim $1.5 billion in tax refunds from unfiled 2019 tax returns: July 17 deadline rapidly approaching. Retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-last-call-for-taxpayers-to-claim-1-point-5-billion-in-tax-refunds-from-unfiled-2019-tax-returns-july-17-deadline-rapidly-approaching
TurboTax. (2024, January 12). Last Chance to Claim Your Tax Refund. Retrieved from https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-refund/last-chance-to-claim-your-tax-refund/L1ySMyA2H
Internal Revenue Service (2023, November 13). Earned Income and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Tables. Retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/earned-income-and-earned-income-tax-credit-eitc-tables
Internal Revenue Service (2024, February 21). Tax Time Guide 2024: What to know before completing a tax return. Retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-time-guide-2024-what-to-know-before-completing-a-tax-return
Knueven, L. (2024, January 12). Millions in life insurance goes unclaimed every year — here’s how to see if you’re owed money. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/select/how-to-find-unclaimed-life-insurance-policy/
National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Homepage. Retrieved from https://content.naic.org/
