Category: Find

Excellus, parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York, has put together a searchable website where you can see if any of the checks it is holding is for you.
I wouldn’t normally focus in on a single state like this, but New York has such a big population and so many people go there for just a year or two to work, that this seems worthwhile. Excellus says it is holding more than $2.1 million dollars for 10,400 individuals and businesses! This is money that was paid for claims or refunded premiums. It rightfully belongs to the company’s members and providers and I want to make sure you have a chance to claim it.
If citizens don’t claim by August, the money will be turned over to the Comptroller of New York. It will end up in the state’s unclaimed money pot, but you can avoid a lot of hassle by claiming your money before that happens.
I tried the Excellus search tool and all you have to enter is your last name and the county in New York where you lived or worked. If you get a hit, the system then tells you the address the check is associated with, so you can tell if the money is really for you. I didn’t find any money under “Leamy.” But there were 87 accounts for people with the last name Smith and 39 for the Joneses. You can also search by entering your company name.
If you find a listing for yourself or your firm, you simply email or call Excellus to start the claim process. I will provide all of the contact info you need to do a search and claim your money from EasyMoneySHow.com/52.

To Claim Abandoned checks from Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York:
Via e-mail: contact Customer Services or Provider Services
By phone:
•If you are currently a health plan member, please call the phone number on your member card
•If you are no longer a health plan member, or if you are calling on behalf of the estate of a family member, call Excellus BlueCross BlueShield: 1-800-499-1275.
•To claim a check after September, contact the NYS Comptroller’s office directly at 1-800-221-9311

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Should you hire a professional to help you search for unclaimed money? That is our featured find yours segment of this podcast.
They’re called “finders” and I have often told you, my listeners, that you can find your own money without these pros. But guest Nick Anderson of Ironwood Recover impressed me with the in-depth treasure hunts he conducts for clients. Here are highlights of our interview.

Let’s get the contentious question out of the way first: Why should people hire a company like yours to help them find their unclaimed money, when it’s pretty easy to search on your own?
I know you and I could search our names and see if we have any money out there but what I enjoy is researching the tough accounts and diving into decades of genealogy to find that one distant relative who is owed a fortune.

You specialize in tricky cases. What are some of the difficulties you take on when finding people’s unclaimed money and why do you enjoy the challenge?
I enjoy mostly finding individuals who are owed money they never knew they were entitled to. What I enjoy is researching the tough accounts and diving into decades of genealogy to find that one distant relative who is owed a fortune. There are complexities…when you are finding/claiming money for a deceased owner. Having been in the business of asset recovery for almost a decade you can imagine that I have some rather interesting recovery stories.

Tell me a couple of stories, Nick. First, about the woman whose husband died in a freak car accident. How did she connect with you, what did you find and how did you find it?
I helped a woman whose husband died in a freak car accident and apparently left her nothing. But I discovered he had over $500k in old savings bonds and got them to this woman and her two children who really needed the money. It transformed their lives.

You also had a case where you reunited lost family members. How did they lose track of each other and what brought them back together?
I reunited lost family members who were all owed a portion of their great grandfather’s estate. They were scattered in a few different states and Canada and now they keep in touch.

Links:
Nick Anderson founded Ironwood Recovery, a professional unclaimed money search firm that specializes in tricky cases.
IronwoodRecovery.com

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One state experimented with keeping people’s unclaimed money if they didn’t claim it in time. That state is Idaho, the Gem state, although most people probably think of it as the potato state. Yes, for quite a while, Idaho was the ONLY state in the country that had a law on the books stating that if citizens didn’t claim their lost accounts within a decade, the state got to keep the money.

Idaho receives nearly $20 million dollars a year worth of unclaimed money, and less than a quarter of rightful owners come forward to claim it, so you can see that the politicians were raking in the dough with this 10-year deadline.

That’s not very long to give people to claim what’s rightfully theirs, especially given that most people have never heard of unclaimed money…and some people have money waiting out there for them from their ancestors, so they’re even less likely to do a search.
Fortunately, in 2012, Idaho politicians felt the heat and changed the law. Today, just like the other 49 states and the District of Columbia, Idaho holds unclaimed money for its citizens forever. As it should be. The whole reason states started grabbing unclaimed money from businesses in the 1960s is because they argued that they would be better stewards of our money and keep it safe.

If you have ever lived or done business in Idaho, I will link you to the Idaho state treasurer’s website, where you can conduct a search. Yes, they changed the law, but I wouldn’t dilly dally. Idaho’s just one budget crisis away from writing a new law to snag YOUR unclaimed money.

Find unclaimed money in Idaho:
www.yourmoney.idaho.gov

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For our find yours topic for today, let’s talk about a lucrative class action settlement involving a garden product.

[MUSIC: Fade music]

The product is Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate Plus or Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Super. The lawsuit alleged that Monsanto advertised that these concentrated products could create far more spray than they actually could. Monsanto didn’t admit fault, but did agree to pay consumers a total of 21 and a half million dollars!

Here’s how you qualify:
•You must have purchased the products for personal or household use.
•The bottles must have had a label on them that said “makes up to XX gallons.” The number of gallons varied based on the size of the product, but the important thing is that that claim is on there, near the top of the bottle.
In California purchases made on or after October 13th 2012 are eligible.
In other states the eligible dates are after April 5th of 2012, 12, 14 15 or 16. Sounds weird but it’s based on each state’s statute of limitations.
Now here’s where it gets interesting and why I thought this was worth including as this week’s Find Yours segment: the payouts are pretty big! You will get between $11 and $53 for each bottle you purchased! And you can make claims for up to 20 bottles!

Just go to EasyMoneyShow.com/49 and I will link you to the websites you need in order to get even more nitty gritty info on this big settlement.

Links:
Top Class Actions Website explains Roundup Settlement: topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settlements/830927-roundup-concentrate-class-action-settlement/

The actual website of the Roundup class action:
www.roundupconcentratesettlement.com/Index

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When I was launching the Easy Money podcast, I searched for unclaimed money for everybody in my contacts list, and I found something for a friend named Lori Atwood who happens to be a certified financial planner. Here’s a summary of our interview about her unclaimed money.

Here you are a financial guru. Were you surprised there was unclaimed money out there for you?
Yes! It had been out there for years and I had no idea until you told me.

What was the money from?
It was escrow money left over from when I bought my first single gal condo.

At first you weren’t convinced it was actually, yours, right? Why was that?
When you search for unclaimed money, the bank or other business that the money came from is listed. But I had never banked at the company listed under my name, which was confusing.

But I pushed you to do a little fancy footwork to verify that the account was your, because your name and address and everything else matched. What did you do?
You suggested that I pull my credit report to see if the account appeared on there.

And what did that reveal?
Turns out the bank where I used to have a mortgage for my old condo had been bought by another bank.

So, once you knew the unclaimed money really was yours, what did you have to do to claim it?
I was able to submit a copy of my credit report to the government as proof that the account was mine.
?And, drum roll please, when you finally got your check, how much money was it?
About $500!

Thanks for sharing that unclaimed money story, Lori. Folks, I have been wanting to have Lori on for months to help make two really important points about unclaimed money.
One, these days it is VERY common for banks and other companies to merge or buy each other, so if you see an unfamiliar company name on your unclaimed money report, keep digging. It’s probably yours.
And, number two, your free credit report is a GREAT resource for figuring out a mystery like this. AND for proving it to the government so you can claim your money. Our credit reports list not only old accounts but old addresses going back years, so they’re a secret weapon in the quest for unclaimed money.
I will post the website where you can get your FREE credit reports AND the two main websites to search for unclaimed money like Lori did at EasyMoneyShow.com/48. Lori Atwood, thank you so much for telling us about FearlessFInance.com AND sharing your unclaimed money story.

EPISODE 48 FIND YOURS LINKS:
•Legitimate website to get your FREE credit reports: AnnualCreditReport.com
•FREE websites to search for unclaimed money:
MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org.

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For all the thousands of people who never search for their unclaimed money and don’t even realize it’s legitimate, there is always somebody who’s fascinated by this missing money, searches for others, and tries to let them in on the good news. This “do gooder” trend is our featured “find yours” segment for this episode. My guest is Steve Mondros of New Jersey who has been interested in unclaimed money ever since he was a kid. Welcome, Steve!

How did you first hear about unclaimed money and what sparked your interest?
in 6th grade, our teacher gave us Reader’s Digests with an article about a company called Tracers, Inc. -how I got interested-then I saw that the local papers had annual advertisements with name lists-that did it!

Have you ever found unclaimed money for yourself or your own family?  
My wife and I

If so, how much money was it, what business was it from, and how did it get lost?
seven thousand for me-from my employer at the time-from a stock option-I had moved, gave them my new address, but they sent my money to my old address.$155 for my wife from a hospital-she was in a nursing home, they sent the money to her there after she had gone home.

When did you first start searching for unclaimed money for other people?
I looked in the newspaper ads starting in the 1980’s, then tried looking for charities, hospitals, etc, around 1999.

What was your goal with your searches?
I was hoping to be a 1-man charity operation.  Completely non-profit for me. It’s great to be Santa Claus by proxy!

Tell me some of the colleges and schools you have searched for and what you found.
 Just about every college has money-I’ve contacted a few-1 college, in Philly, got 18 thousand.

You have also searched for hospitals.  That’s a great idea.  What are some of the most interesting unclaimed money accounts you found for them?
Probably every hospital has money, but since most don’t collect the money-they just refer the info to another department, I’ve not done much contacting lately.

How do you contact these groups to share the good news and how do they respond? 
I send the printouts and explain that I don’t want any of the money and ask them to Google the websites/phone numbers to show that they are legit.  Most either ignore me or turn the info over to their legal/financial/accounting departments.

Have any of the groups you’ve found money for actually followed up and cashed in?
A few charities/schools/etc have collected their money.  
 I had some success with a bunch of places in the late 1990’s-and a few last year,

Associations were another of your targets.  And there’s one in particular that you’ve been trying and trying to reach with the good news with no luck.  Tell us that story.
I’m a member of AARP-and one of their magazines has an article about how people can collect unclaimed money-so I\’ve emailed, called, written-no response from them-in PA alone, the state site can only list their first 400 accounts-and then they ask me for contributions.

You contacted me for help because you know I’ve covered unclaimed money at ABC News, then at the Washington Post and now here on Easy Money.  Tell my listeners what you wanted help with.
If you have any ideas-or contacts with any charities, organizations-ideas about why I get no response, please let me know.  Thank you!

Way back on episode 5 I interviewed a teenage girl who does sometihng similar to what you’ve been trying to do.  She finds unclaimed money for charities.  The way she lets them know is by emailing them a screen shot of the unclaimed money listing, rather than asking them to click a link to see it, since people are so worried about clicking scammy links.  But, other than that, I don’t have any magic solution.  So I want to crowdsource your dilemma.  Dear Easy Money listeners: Please, folks, send me ideas for how Steve can share good news about unclaimed money with various worthy groups WITHOUT them thinking it’s a scam.  Please go to EasyMoneyShow.com and leave me a voicemail on the home page.  Or email me from the contact page.  I look forward to your smart ideas.  Meanwhile, Steve, since you know I write for the Washington Post, you looked the newspaper up too.  What did you find?
The Post has multiple unclaimed money accounts, in DC and elsewhere. 
Please go to www.unclaimed.org and click on the Delaware site and Search for Washington Post. Delaware has money for places/people worldwide. Then, go to www.missingmoney.com  and create a free account and do profiles for Washington Post, Post Washington and The Washington Post. that site doesn’t list every state (not DE) but many. 

You’ve got some advanced tips for searching for unclaimed money that even I had never heard. I’m going to state the tip and you explain it, OK?
•Using newspapers.com:
I can see ads dating back to 1920…

•Searching older records:
some states don’t have older records online-PA, NY, NJ… call and ask for a complete search.

•And what about searching in foreign countries?
Canada, Kenya, Australia, UK (some) and NZ all have sites..

How many unclaimed money accounts would you say you’ve found for people and groups in all?
Dozens.

And what percentage of those would you say have listened to you and claimed their money?
Maybe 20, 30 have collected…

Therein lies the problem! Unclaimed money is real. So much so that I devote a third of every Easy Money podcast to it. And it’s OUR money, not the government’s money, so somehow we need to educate people to search and claim what’s theirs.

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