State of Maine Unclaimed Property

Are you familiar with the notion of unclaimed property?

Perhaps you’ve heard it referred to as unclaimed funds or missing money.

Basically, here is what it means.

When you move, either locally or to another state, you may have left money behind at an old address.

Most Americans have no idea that something like this exists.

Some estimate that there is more than $50 billion in unclaimed funds in the United States.

While there isn’t that much missing money in Maine, there still is a significant amount.

As of this writing, the Maine State Treasurer’s office estimates that they have $299,906,764 or nearly $300 million in Mainers’ unclaimed property.

Why might you have unclaimed property in Maine

There are lots of reasons someone might end up with unclaimed funds or missing money in Maine.

And it’s not because they lost their wallet.

Some examples:

• deposits you’d left for an old utility service
• interest from a bank account
• uncashed tax refund check
• dividends from stocks

In fact, I just searched to see if my mother, who lives in Parsonsfield, had any missing money in Maine.

Turns out she did.

I didn’t recognize the name of the company that said it owed her money.

Google told me it is the parent company of Clynk bottle return.

Anyway, the listing on the government website says that the amount is under $25.

It also qualifies this money as “Credit balance, accounts receivable.”

I’m going to have to forward this information to her so she can claim however much Clynk owes her.

Other kinds of State of Maine unclaimed funds

While I was on that page, I scrolled to see what other reasons people with the same last name have money owed to them.

I discovered someone who hadn’t cashed a paycheck from Lowe’s and another person who was due a refund from a local hospital.

Also listed:

• Credit from L.L. Bean
• Insurance claim payment from Aetna
• Uncashed check from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services
• Settlement check from a car manufacturer

How to get your unclaimed property from the State of Maine

As I mentioned, The Maine Unclaimed Property Office is run through the Office of the State Treasurer.

You’ll need to visit that unclaimed property website and search for your name.

All you need to do is enter your first and last name.

I did this for a fictitious “John Smith” so you could see what the results look like.

You can add your zip code but it doesn’t matter.

The website is going to return all results that match your name, plus everyone else with the same last name.

However, your name will be first in the list.

On the other hand, if you have a common name, like John Smith, then you probably do want to add that extra information to make your search a bit easier.

Then, when you find missing money you want to claim, you’ll click on the “Claim” button to the left of the results and start the online process.

After that, you’ll read through a page of instructions and then you’ll submit the claim online.

Getting a check for your unclaimed money

I’m not sure how long it takes to get the check sent to you, but it will eventually show up–assuming they have the right address on file.

For example, that missing Clynk money I mentioned finding for my mother?

Well, the search results had her street mailing address listed correctly but then they also had a PO Box address for her on the same line.

She doesn’t have a PO Box.

So, when she eventually files this claim, it will be a crapshoot to see if the check makes it to her street address mailbox.

Or, maybe, because of that PO Box being listed as associated with her name, Clynk had mailed her a check in the past, it went to a non-existent post office box and that’s why it was returned as unclaimed.

Good thing she lives in a small town where she knows the postmaster and is friendly with postal clerks.

I’ll bet if she gives them a heads up about this non-existent PO Box, they can look out for it for her.