I recently discovered that *I* had unclaimed property! ME!!! I had heard about unclaimed property held by state treasury departments on "Dateline NBC" and decided to look into it. Here's what I did:
I went to the link provided above for Virginia (the only state I've ever lived or worked in), which took me to the VA Dept of the Treasury's unclaimed property website. From there I clicked on the "Unclaimed Property Search" link to see if there was anything under any of my names.
I say "names" because I've actually had three names at different points of my life. Jennifer Maiden Name, Jennifer Ex-Husband's Surname, and Jennifer Current Husband's Surname. I searched under all three and got a hit for Jennifer Ex-Husband's Surname. The city of the last known address was Centreville, VA -- the last place I lived before we divorced and I moved to Richmond. Since his surname is quite unusual, I was 100% positive the unclaimed property -- listed as "Over $100" -- was mine. YAY!
I then submitted an inquiry online, which took only a minute to fill out. About two weeks later I got a letter in the mail which asked me to send in documentation to verify I was who I said I was so I could claim the property. This letter also gave the full address of the last known address, and when I saw that I knew it was mine! However, the tricky thing for me was being able to provide documentation which showed both my previously married name AND the Centreville address, from 1999 (I only lived there for one year). After the divorce I lost a lot of paperwork from that period and didn't really have anything on hand that I could send.
But my current auto insurance is with the same company I had used back in 1999, so I asked them to send me a copy of an old auto insurance policy that showed both my old name and address. I sent that along with a copy of my current and old drivers licenses and SSN card back to the Unclaimed Property division, then crossed my fingers.
Well, about two weeks after that I got a check for $103.17 in the mail! I'm not exactly sure where the money came from, but I honestly don't care! I'm just pleased that I was able to reclaim it, and so easily. I am very impressed at how streamlined the process was.
So, if you haven't already -- try it! The worst that can happen is that there's nothing there for you. But if you're lucky, like I was, you might just get a nice surprise!
~ Jenney