February 1 is National Unclaimed Property Day
$30.6 million in unclaimed cash returned to rightful owners in FY2022
SALT LAKE CITY – February 1, 2023 – Utah Treasurer Marlo M. Oaks today announced that the Utah Unclaimed Property Division of the Office of State Treasurer received a record-breaking $77.2 million in lost property in 2022. This property comes from sources like dormant bank accounts, overpaid medical bills, uncashed checks, safe deposit box contents and unpaid insurance benefits. The announcement coincides with National Unclaimed Property Day.
“We encourage Utahns to check mycash.utah.gov every year to see if they have lost money to claim. Take five minutes this National Unclaimed Property Day to search for property belonging to you, your friends and your relatives,” Treasurer Oaks said. “One in five Utahns has lost money, and they probably don’t know it. I had no idea I had lost money until I became state treasurer and learned about an overpaid medical bill.”
When a business owes money to an individual it cannot find, it remits those funds to the state after three years of non-contact with the owner. Property holders remitted 496,880 new cash and tangible properties to the division by the November 1 annual reporting deadline, along with the names and last-known addresses of owners.
The division uses a variety of methods to return unclaimed money to rightful owners, including implementing aggressive outreach campaigns, leveraging technology and forging partnerships with charities, local government leaders and the news media.
“Last year, we shifted our efforts to reunite unclaimed money with rightful owners in Utah’s most economically depressed communities where the money could make the biggest difference. As a result, we reunited lost money with more Utahns than ever before, including those who needed it the most during these challenging economic times,” Treasurer Oaks said.
In partnership with the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center, the Unclaimed Property Division created a tool to search unclaimed property data by census tract, county, senate district and house district. One use of the tool—matching unclaimed property data with corresponding census tract median income data—enables the division to focus more strategically on areas of the state with the greatest need. As part of this effort, the division has sent out 796,388 direct mail postcards to these communities during the past year.
Additionally, the division joined forces with leaders of some of these communities to reunite unclaimed money with residents through a data-matching project. As a result of the project, the state mailed letters to individuals and businesses in those communities who were identified as possible owners. Cities also published articles about unclaimed property in newsletters and magazines and helped spread the word on social media.
“Despite our innovations and accomplishments, we still take in more property each year than we can return,” Unclaimed Property Administrator Dennis Johnston said. “Every Utahn should go online at least once a year to find and claim their property – and check for family, friends, deceased relatives and organizations they support as well.”
“Even if you have searched for unclaimed property in the past, check again,” Treasurer Oaks said. “We may have received additional property since you last visited our website.”
For more information and to search property, visit mycash.utah.gov.
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