Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro, announced on Thursday, Jan. 25 the addition of $11.6 million to Maine’s Unclaimed Property Fund. This property consists of financial assets that have gone unclaimed by their owners. The last known owner’s information is now available at maine.gov/unclaimed. In total, the Office of the State Treasurer has more than $241 million of unclaimed property.
Dow urges his constituents to search their names for missing property. “It only takes a few minutes to see if your name is on the list,” he said. “In many cases, the money has been sitting there, unclaimed, for years. The only way to find out if some of it is yours is to go to the website. So I would encourage everyone to check it out.”
Unclaimed property consists of cash and other financial assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner cannot be located after a specified period of time. It includes, among other items, checking accounts, certificates of deposit, overpayments, gift certificates, paid-up life insurance policies, unpaid wages, uncashed checks, death benefits, dividends, insurance payments, refunds, savings accounts, stocks, and contents of safe deposit boxes.
Millions of dollars are turned over annually to the Maine State Treasurer by entities who cannot locate the owners. If one’s name is on the list, one can file a claim electronically at maine.gov/upsearch. One does not need to pay anyone to file a claim, as filing a claim is both easy and free.
