Missing Money dot com is a collaborative effort by many US States to supply a one stop shop if you will of unclaimed funds.
The premise is excellent and it functions adequately, however there are some significant shortfalls. Just read the following clip from their website.
Q. Does MissingMoney.com list all records held by the participating states and provinces?
A. No. Some states and provinces do not list allow of the records in their custody. For example, some states and provinces do not list records under a certain dollar amount. Other states only list the most recent property items in their custody, while yet others list only older records. However, we still receive thousands of new listings each month from the participating states and provinces.
Then read this as well from their faqs. See if you can pick up the double speak.
Q. Another service contacted me and told me I have property. How come I can't find it on MissingMoney.com?
A.Some people and companies, known as heir finders contact consumers about unclaimed funds. Oftentimes they charge a "finder's" fee which can be as much as 50% of the property amount. To try and locate these funds yourself, for free, first conduct a search of MissingMoney.com and if you don't see the property listed, you should try linking out to non-participating state web sites via the map on our site. (click on "State Contact Information" on the left hand side of MissingMoney.com homepage). Click on a state and you will be brought to their Unclaimed Property Page enabling you to search their site directly. You can also try searching the federal agency web sites by linking from our Related Sites page. It could also be unclaimed property that has not yet been turned over to the State. In this case, you have to contact the company holding the funds. You should try former insurance companies or other companies with whom you did business and may have forgotten an account. Also, try checking back with MissingMoney.com monthly as new states and provinces and new records are continually added.
Now I will ask, do you see the double talk? Don't feel bad if you missed it. The writting follows the industry standard. We don't have all the answers but don't trust anyone that purports to have a solution. I am very frustrated by this because it is repeated by almost every article on unclaimed property just go look for your name. If its not there you must not be owed any money. Simple right? Wrong! If it were that simple there wouldn't be neary 350 BILLION dollars in unclaimed funds in the United States alone. That's approximately $1000 for every man woman and child in the US.
Every industry has professionals just because they work for a percentage of funds doesn't make them bad. On the contrary you should be excited because an heir finder will only contact someone if they are owed a significant amount of money! So congratulations!
GOOD LUCK SEARCHING.
JAMIE
