New York unclaimed money totals are over $15.5 billion, making them the richest state that publicly discloses their amount. As you might expect their website is also one of the nicest and easiest to navigate.
New York unclaimed money division has over 39 million accounts still waiting to be claimed. Each day they return over $1.5 million in unclaimed money. From April 2017 to March 2018 the Treasurer’s office returned a record 535,000 claims totaling $460 million.
More than 10 million searches are conducted annually via their website and there is no fee to reclaim the funds. 70 percent of all claims are less than $100, but there are some much larger amounts out there. The largest claim paid out to date was a stock claim totaling $5.2 million. The record can be broken if someone were to claim the largest account still unclaimed, an estate worth roughly $8 million.
New York Unclaimed Money Statistics
The state also offers a fact sheet on NY unclaimed property including an interactive map. As you might expect, New York county holds the most with nearly $2 billion spread over 1.7 million accounts. It also provides a breakdown of the sources of the unclaimed money in the state. Here’s the Breakdown:
- Banks – 40%
- Corporations – 19%
- Insurance Companies – 18%
- Court Funds – 11%
- Brokers/Dealers – 2%
- Utilities – 1%
- Other – 9%
New York State also offers outreach events to help residents with claims for their unclaimed property. These take place at fairs or other community events to meet with locals and help raise awareness of unclaimed money searching.
Filing online will also greatly expedite your claim with NY state as you can expect a check in 2 weeks or less. If you decide to mail your claim the process can be quite lengthy as it can take 8-10 weeks total to process. Unclaimed Money finders are also legal in this state and can charge a maximum of 15 percent of the total claim.
Office of the State Comptroller
Office of Unclaimed Funds
110 State Street
Albany, New York 12236
Phone: 1-800-221-9311
Website: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/index.htm