Claims ranged from a few dollars up to a claim of over a quarter of a million dollars. There are a few ways to find out if the state owes you money. You can call, write or just go to the state treasurer's Web site. Tucked away in a secure room are more than a dozen steel vaults. Inside are often a lifetime's worth of savings.
Every State has an unclaimed property program.
The purpose of these programs is to return unclaimed property to rightful owners. Unclaimed property includes everything from costume jewelry, stock certificates, coin collections and cash. Property is considered unclaimed when there is a lack of activity generated by the rightful owner of the property. Evidence of this inactivity includes failure to cash a check, the return of a check or correspondence by the Post Office as undeliverable, or the absence of any communication from the owner. If property remains unclaimed for a certain number of years set by statute, it is considered abandoned and must be reported to the state's unclaimed property program.