$1,000,000,000 in Unclaimed Assets Sitting in Bank Accounts and Owed to Customers in One US State: Report

The amount of unclaimed cash and property unwittingly owned by Americans has surpassed $1 billion in one US state.

Stats from North Carolina’s Treasury Department show residents have a significant pile of essentially free money waiting for them, reports the Charlotte-based NBC-affiliated news station WCNC.

The unclaimed assets are hiding in a long list of places including forgotten bank and safe deposit boxes, owed from utility deposits and insurance overpayments, left behind from family members and stuck in uncashed checks.

About 10% of Americans likely have unclaimed assets in their name, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

Most of the assets in questions are held by individual states, and in North Carolina the state treasurer is in control.

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators has a website dedicated to unclaimed property, and the organization says it’s helped 10’s of millions of people track down more than $4 trillion in assets.

A significant amount of money is also in forgotten 401(k) accounts, and the financial resource platform Bankrate has outlined a number ofways that people can track them down.

One is to search the Department of Labor’s website, which maintains records of public and private sector businesses that provide employee benefit plans.

Bankrate also recommends people contact their former employer directly and ask human resources to look up whether you took part in a 401(k) plan.

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