AUGUSTA – In fiscal year 2018, the State Treasury paid out more than $18.5 million to Mainers from the unclaimed property program.
That figure represents more than 29,000 individual claims ranging from lower than $10 to as high as $766,000. The FY’18 total paid is 73 percent of the $25.4 million received from Maine businesses and non-profits in the same year. Treasury’s Unclaimed Property team, consisting of four specialists, processed nearly 44,000 claims, and beat last year’s numbers by more than $300,000.
State Treasurer Terry Hayes has placed an emphasis on returning property during her tenure. Hayes reports, “Maine’s unclaimed property program is a consumer protection program. It is our job to ensure that this money is returned to its rightful owners. Kudos to our team for their efforts to improve results year after year.”
Despite this success, the Treasurer holds over $238,162,000 in unclaimed property – some of which may belong to you. It is easy and free to file a claim. Go to https://www.maine.gov/upsearch to search the database. If you find you have property listed on the website, you can file your claim online, at no charge.
Be sure to check again in early 2019 as Treasury receives new monies in this program every year.
Most recently, the Treasurer’s Office mailed 1,300 letters to Mainers in the latest outreach attempt to locate owners of abandoned safe deposit box contents. If you received one of these letters, you can use the same website to file your claim, at no charge.
Unclaimed Property consists of money and other financial assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner cannot be located after a specified time period. It includes items such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, life insurance policies, unpaid wages, stocks and dividends, refunds, and safe deposit box contents.
