If your idea of a windfall is finding money under couch cushions or a coin in a parking lot, just wait until you start looking through databases for finding lost or unclaimed money. Chances are, you’ll find it more fun – and possibly far more profitable.
Banks, insurance companies and the U.S. Department of the Treasury – among other organizations – have websites designed to help people find money that never made it to their bank accounts.
If you think you might have let some money slip through the cracks, here are 11 places to look for it:
- Former pension and retirement plans.
- Life insurance policies.
- Federal tax returns.
- State departments of taxation.
- Online databases designed to find missing money.
- Bank accounts.
- Unpaid back wages.
- Savings bonds.
- Bad investments.
- Money owed to you from a bankruptcy.
- Native American money.
1. Former Pension and Retirement Plans
To pinpoint an unclaimed pension from an old job, check out the website PBGC that’s run by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a U.S. government agency.
PenChecks Trust, which offers retirement plan distributions, also has a registry database of unclaimed retirement benefits, where both employers and employees may pinpoint unclaimed funds.
2. Life Insurance Policies
If you’re looking for an unclaimed life insurance benefit, check out the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs unclaimed funds page.
You may also want to look at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ life insurance…
