Earlier this year the Illinois State Treasurer's newsletter mentioned the state database of unclaimed property. It took two quick searches to discover that the state had about $200 of my money, and would happily hand it back to me if I filled out a form. (The state also has about $40 of my mother's money, but the effort to gather all the documentation—including her will and trust documents—does not make this a worthwhile effort. Maybe the state will use it to improve public transit? But I jest.)
This got me thinking: do other states have money of mine? Yes, it turned out, they did. New York coughed up about $40 from an insurance refund owed me since 1998. And yesterday, I finally got another refund that New Jersey had held since I moved from Hoboken in 2000.
The New Jersey check was just over $325, the equivalent of $607 today. So even though inflation ate away 47% of it, I still got a couple extra bucks to stick in my stocking this week.
Kudos to the state treasurers who have made this possible. You, too, should check for unclaimed property. Somewhere, some insurance company may have tried to send you money and given up when they couldn't read a forwarding notice.