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EPISODE 42~ FIND YOURS: Missing Money: Beware of Unclaimed Money Scams That Try To Take Your Money Instead of Giving It To You

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Let’s talk about our actual “find yours” topic for today: unclaimed money scams.  Fraudsters who try to get in on the unclaimed money goodness.  The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators or ‘NAUPA” is warning that scammers have been taking the group’s name in vain and trying to take YOUR money.

NAUPA is made up of government folks from every state department that works to return people’s unclaimed money.   So, needless to say, they were not happy about this.  The association posted a fake letter on its website to warn and educated people about the scam and I will link you to that page from EasyMoneyShow.com/42 so you can see for yourself.

The letter claims to alert people to an unclaimed sweepstakes listing in their name.  I have never heard of sweepstakes winnings being turned over as unclaimed money.  Clearly a scam. 

So what are the bad guys after?  In the sweepstakes letter they claim you have won $750,000, but that you owe taxes of $112,500.  That’s their hook, their way of extracting money from victims.  They are hoping you will pay them the hundred-grand-plus before you notice they haven’t paid you ANYTHING.   

This fraudulent letter even MENTIONS scams in an attempt to head off any concerns recipients may have.  Here’s a quote: “It is very important to stay alert for sweepstakes scams, however it is also equally important not to let your win pass you by because of things that might seem a little strange but are actually  a normal part of the award registration process.”  The letter goes on to advise people not to tell anyone about their win.  That’s probably an attempt to keep you from reporting this to the authorities.  Clever in an evil sort of way!

The letter appears to be on official NAUPA stationery, which is part of the hoax, but a telltale tip off to this ripoff are lots of subtle spelling and grammar errors.  For example, one line in the letter mistakenly says “After taxes you are entitled to receive AND amount of $450,000.”

So, what can we learn from this? 

  1. You should know that NAUPA never contacts people about unclaimed money.  It is just an association that government unclaimed money employees belong to, where they trade information about best practices for administering and returning unclaimed money.
  2. If you receive a letter from ANYONE claiming you have unclaimed money out there somewhere, you should ignore their requests for a cut of the cash and do a search yourself.  As always, the 2 FREE sites where you can find 90 percent of unclaimed money are MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org.
  3. And finally, you should know that when you do claim legitimate unclaimed money, you are NEVER asked to pay taxes of fees to collect that money.  Ever.

Stay alert, people!

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EPISODE 41 ~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Money: Why You Should Try A Search By Last Name ONLY

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Let’s talk about our find yours topic for this week: the strategy of teaching just your last name when you look for unclaimed money.

This is a strategy for people who want to make sure they’ve turned over every single stone in their search for missing money.

I’ve talked about where you should search, namely every single state to be truly thorough.   

Now let’s talk about how to search.  Searching under JUST your last name is a great strategy.  In fact, on Episode 32, I interviewed Kerry Armstrong who found her grandfather’s lost life insurance policy by searching JUST the name Armstrong. 

Here’s how you do it:  Go to MissingMoney.com OR to unclaimed.org or any other legitimate unclaimed money search site, but instead of using both the first and last name boxes, skip the one for first names, and just put your last name in the last name box.  Yes!  They allow you to do that.  First name is not a required field.  Once your results come up, check the states and addresses to see if they belong to you or relatives.

I myself came up with 192 listings when I searched just Leamy instead of Elisabeth Leamy.  I then looked through them to see if I recognized any of the first names OR addresses.  This is a great way of finding:

•Unclaimed money listed under your first initial and last name.  This is common.

•Money listed under a nickname you don’t usually use for bank accounts.  Like “Liz” for me.  I’ve never called myself that but relatives did.

•Unclaimed money for you where the first name is misspelled in a way you didn’t imagine.  I spotted one for a Rboin Leamy. Surely that was supposed to be Robin Leamy, but some clerk mis-typed it at some point.

•Missing money accidentally listed under your middle name and last name.  I saw a ton of Ann Leamy’s listed and, trust me, I’m going to check those entries out.

•Money for your living relatives

•Money for deceased relatives that you have a right to claim.

I myself didn’t find any money for myself this way, but I did find money for 2 uncles and 4 cousins!  Karma, people!  Give this a try and report back!  I’d be thrilled to interview you for the show if you find something.

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EPISODE 40 ~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Money: Don’t Pay A “Finder” For Access To Your Own Money

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I’m happy to say that this week’s “Find Yours” blog came from one of you.  Let’s check it out.

Hi, this is Patrick in California.  I got a letter in the mail saying I am owed unclaimed money and this company can claim it for me.  I don’t want to pay them a percentage, but I have no idea where the unclaimed money is, so I feel like I may have to.  What should I do?”

Thanks for bringing up such an important unclaimed money topic, Patrick!  The letter you received was from what we call a “finder”  and I don’t think you should EVER have to pay a Finder for access to your own money.  These are opportunists who try to profit from other people’s unclaimed money by finding their accounts and asking for a cut.  The good news is that finders are usually only interested in good-sized amounts of  money, so you may have a nice nest egg waiting out there for you somewhere. 

If the Finder told you the amount of money you are owed, they either found the money in California or Texas, which are the only states that publish the amounts people are owed right online.   OR they submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to some other state and got a list of names and amounts of unclaimed money that way.  Many states will divulge that information in response to a FOIA request.

OK, deep breath, here’s what you do.  You search the way I always suggest you search: First you check the website MissingMoney.com, which automatically searches its 40 member states for you.  Then, if you don’t find the money there, you check unclaimed.org (remember, .org) and check the other 10 states that don’t participate with MissingMoney.  As a reminder, those states are: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming.  Remember, sometimes the money is held where the company is based or incorporated, rather than where you live, so it can be important to check those 10 states even if you’ve never set foot in them.  Keep checking until you find your money.

I estimate that the combination of  MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org will turn up 90 percent of unclaimed money.

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EPISODE 39 ~ FIND YOURS: Stocks: Find Your Unclaimed Stocks Before The Government Sells Them at a Loss

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Let’s talk about our find yours topic for today: the importance of finding any unclaimed stocks or bonds before the government sells them off.

Here’s why this is crucial: one, many of us don’t keep close track of the investments we buy because we’ve been told to hold them for the long haul, so we just sort of let them stew and hope they go up.  This is incredibly common.  It’s also common for investments to go missing when they were given to you or your children by a relative.  Problem is, if you don’t at least keep in annual touch with the bank or brokerage firm where those investments are held, they could get reported as unclaimed property.

If your stocks, bonds or mutual funds get reported to the government as unclaimed property, the clock starts ticking.  Every state I know of is either required by law, or has a procedure for selling off seized investments, usually within just one year of receiving them.  Frankly, they want that illiquid asset turned into cash, because they USE the money until you claim it.  Problem is, the state’s unclaimed property administrators are not investment analysts and they often sell investments at a disadvantage to you.  They make no effort whatsoever to check and see if it’s an opportune time to sell, and often end up liquidating your stock when the price is low.  If you later make a claim, they’ll give you the amount they got for it, but that amount may be way less than it could have been if the  money stayed invested.

This is not theoretical: I did an in-depth investigation at ABC News of states doing exactly this.  A British man went to retire and discovered that the 4-million dollars in US stock he had been counting on had been seized by the state of California and sold for just $200 thousand dollars years earlier!  Another family had owned railroad land rights for generations, but the state sold those off, depriving the heirs of millions of dollars worth of value.

What to do?  First, keep your investments from becoming unclaimed property in the first place.  Be sure to make contact once or twice a year.  Email your banker or broker.  If you’re sent a proxy to vote because of a stock you own, do it, to show you are active.  Ask for an annual review.  They’re supposed to offer one anyway.

Now, if you’ve already lost track of stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other investments, get started searching for them right away.  As always, the first two places to look are MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org because most lost investments get turned over to the state where you live and those 2 websites cover all 50 states.   To search for investments held in a 401k account, you can try the Employee Benefits Security Administration, part of the department of labor.

Finally, if you WERE in touch with your bank or brokerage, and you have proof, but your investments were seized as unclaimed property anyway, you may have great grounds for a lawsuit.  Something to keep in mind.

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EPISODE 38 ~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Money: Help Your Elder Friends Discover Their Missing Money With Lifespan

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It’s a good idea to search for unclaimed money for older friends and relatives.  After all, they’ve lived longer, so they’ve had more chances for their money to go missing.  My guest has been searching for unclaimed money for seniors for years and wait ’til you hear how much he’s found.  Gabriel Geiger is Director of Financial Services for Lifespan of Greater Rochester New York. (lifespanrochester.org) 

 

First explain what Lifespan does for its clients.

We offer different programs to help older adults.  We help people when they are 60 or older. Our programs help them with budgeting and bill paying. We have clients that cross the spectrum from indigents to middle class to affluent. 

 

How did you first get the idea to search for unclaimed money for your clients?

Many of our clients, who are indigent, they need every penny they can find to live and pay for food. We have people who lose track of assets over time and our goal is to leverage the assets that clients have that maybe they don’t know they have.

 

Where do you look for unclaimed money for these folks?

We’ve been doing this for over 15 years.  We utilize the NY abandoned property website and look at specialty ones for teachers.

 

I’m not familiar with special unclaimed property sources for teachers.  Tell me more!  

Actually, there are many websites for a variety of sources of abandoned property!

www.nystrs.org                                                               

NY State Teachers Retirement System, checks other states as appropriate

www.Excellusbcbs.com/forgottenfunds                

any health insurance company

www.osc.state.ny.us                                                     

abandoned property in NY State, check with each state

www.pbgc.gov                                                                

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, missing participants pensions, 401k’s  

                                                             

www.unclaimedretirementbenefits.com              

National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits

 

You have another unclaimed money strategy I find fascinating.  Explain what you look for in regard to people’s bank accounts and FDIC insurance.   

I, myself and many of my colleagues here are former bankers and we know that it used to be FDIC insurance was fairly low.  The chart below demonstrates how it has increase gradually over time due to inflation, etc.

FDIC gradually increased deposit insurance from

1934 $    2,500

1950 $  10,000

1966 $  15,000

1969 $  20,000

1974 $  40,000

1980 $100,000

2010 $250,000

So, to protect assets, consumers would open accounts at a variety of banks to maintain funds within insurance levels.  Over time, people move, get busy with life and sometimes forget about some of their accounts at different financial institutions. 

 

In addition to unclaimed property, you’ve been able to find benefits for people.  What kinds of benefits?

It is very simple. You just need to know to do it. As people age they don’t know what they don’t know, so we are here to help them figure that out. Besides helping them find abandoned property – we help them find benefits too.

We utilize www.benefitscheckup.org which is sponsored by the NCOA – National Council on Aging.  This is an excellent tool which will identify benefits (medications, health care, income assistance, food & nutrition, housing & utilities, tax relief and much more) that people may be eligible to receive and more importantly how to access it.

 

The unclaimed money you’ve found for older people… what kind of difference has it made in their lives?

Because we find money for them, someone was able to continue living in the community. We are helping people in our programs. They are able to buy a tv set or buy furniture or take their kids on a trip, funeral arrangements and much more. 

 

Any specific stories of happy seniors you were able to help that you can share?

 

You’ve also made some of your own family members very happy through your unclaimed money expertise, I am right?

I search unclaimed property sites for myself all the time and I always check for my family members too. Recently found some for my niece from a former employer. She was able to recover those funds. She said ‘thanks a lot Uncle Gabe.” It was around $600.

 

OK, here’s the question my Easy Money listeners have been waiting for me to ask: How much unclaimed money do you estimate you’ve recovered for your clients in all?

We have been able to collect a lot of money for our clients over time.  I would estimate about a million plus. We are talking about 100s of clients over the last 15 years.

 

What have some of the individual windfalls been like?

We have found from a couple of dollars to 10,000, 20,000, 30,000  or more for people.

 

When you share the good news, do your clients believe you?  I myself have had many friends and family think I was pulling their leg.

Of course they believe me. You have heard of Honest Abe. I am Honest Gabe so they believe me!  But really, when they see the check that our staff has collected for their respective clients, the clients are quite appreciative and many times can get something special with the proceeds – like a tv or furniture.

 

What is your advice to my Easy Money listeners who may have searched and not found any unclaimed money?

Don’t search once and be done. We search quarterly for our clients. This is part of our assignment. Search the abandoned property, at least on a quarterly basis. We may find money now or not find any but maybe in 3 months there will be money that is reported.

 

You also suggest searching old addresses or states where you used to live, right?

People move and lots of unclaimed money comes about from that.

 

And what about searching the names of deceased loves ones.  Is that worthwhile?

People move or die and we have clients whose family members have passed and we locate money that way too.

 

And, finally, what would you say to encourage people to search for their older relatives who are still living, just like you do?

Often times, this is just found money that can demonstrate to relatives their genuine concern and even a bigger difference for whom the money is found because then they can get something special or just increase disposable income. 

Gabe Geiger of Lifespan of Greater Rochester, thank you so much for being my guest on Easy Money.

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EPISODE 37 ~ FIND YOURS: Broker: Recover Your Unclaimed Money From Brokers That Went Out-Of-Business

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Let’s talk about our find yours topic for today: how to recover unclaimed money from a brokerage firm that went out of business.

It turns out there is a little-known agency that handles these cases called the SIPC or Securities Investor Protection Corporation.  It’s kind of like the FDIC of brokerage firms, insuring customers’ accounts in the event the firm goes out of business.

The SIPC was established specifically to deal with cases where brokerage firms go under after a rash of bankruptcies in the 1960s. The SIPC liquidates and distributes failed firms’ assets, returning them to customers. The SIPC can’t protect you if your portfolio lost value, but it does protect you if the company went out of business and never gave you back your portfolio. 

First the SIPC uses the brokerage firms own assets to return customers’ money.  If that’s not enough, the SIPC taps into its own reserves to repay investors.  In fact, the SIPC provides something similar to an insurance policy of up to $500,000 for securities held for customers by a failed brokerage firm.

Little known fact: Even victims of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme got much of their money back through the SIPC… 11 billion of the 17 billion lost.

Other brokerage firms the SIPC has taken over to get money back to customers include:

•Lehman brothers, which famously went out of business during the 2008 financial meltdown.

•MF Global Inc, which went under in 2011and was the 8th largest insolvency in brokerage firm history.

•Westor Capital Group declared bankruptcy in 2013 and those proceedings are still ongoing.

•In 2016, Global Arena Capital Corp went out of business but claimed not to owe any customers money.  The SIPC took Global Arena to court, victims testified, and the SIPC won the case and took over the firm’s assets.

•In 2017, there was Legend Securities.

Normally the SIPC takes over a failed brokerage firm’s paperwork, including lists of customers and mails out claim forms, but the system isn’t perfect and THIS is where I can help with some info: If your brokerage firm went bankrupt and was insured by the SIPC, you can be proactive and REQUEST a claim form.  Here is the page for all open SIPC cases, which is where you need to go to start the process.

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EPISODE 36 ~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Funds: Why You Must Search All 50 States To Be Sure You’ve Found Your Missing Money

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Let’s talk about our find yours topic for today: namely the importance of searching ALL 50 states if you want to be sure to find all unclaimed money owed to you. 

Yes, the states where you have lived are the top priority for a search, because unclaimed money is most often held in the state where the citizen lives or lived.  BUT that is not always the case!  The second most common location for unclaimed money is the state where the company that owes it to you is based. 

That’s because, by law, unclaimed property is supposed to go to the state where you live, but if the company doesn’t know your address, then that unclaimed property is required to be held in the state where the company is based. 

This can be confusing, because it doesn’t necessarily mean the state where you did business or where the corporate headquarters is.  For example, think of all the companies that do business in one state but are incorporated in the state of Delaware, because of it’s favorable incorporation laws.

This is why I say that a truly thorough search for your and your loved ones means checking unclaimed property records in all 50 states.  Having said that, it is NOT really that hard to do.  When you use the website MissingMoney.com, that automatically checks 40 states for you.  Then, you just head over to unclaimed.org —as always that’s .org— to check the other 10 states individually.

As a reminder, the 10 states you must check with unclaimed.org, because they don’t participate with MissingMoney.com— are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming.

I would LOVE to profile somebody who found their unclaimed money in the state where the company was based instead of their own home state.  So PLEASE, let me know if this happened to you.  You can get in touch with me at EasyMoneyShow.com/contact.

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EPISODE 35 ~ FIND YOURS: 401K: How To Find Your Missing 401K From An Old Job

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And now let’s talk about our find yours topic for today: how to find your lost 401k plan from a former job.

If your old employer is still in business, chances are you can find your plan by contacting the company.  But if the firm is no longer around, the Employee Benefits Security Administration —part of the Department of Labor— can help you with this.  EBSA calls them “abandoned plans” and says there are several reasons why an employer might abandon its pension or 401k plan. In some cases, the employer goes bankrupt.  In others, the plan sponsor has been jailed, fled the country, or died.  Bad for them and for you!

EBSA has developed an Abandoned Plan searchable database to help participants and beneficiaries find out if a particular plan is in the process, or has been, terminated. The site is searchable by plan name or employer name.  If you find something, then EBSA will direct you to the Qualified Termination Administrator or QTA administering the plan.  Gotta love the government and it’s acronyms.  A QTA is usually a bank, insurance company or investment firm that has agreed to get the 401k money to the account holders.

The QTA will provide you with something called a “notice of plan termination.”  This document will tell you the different ways you can receive your money.  If you don’t choose a preferred method within a month, the QTA may well roll your 401k money into an IRA for you.  That’s common.

When you search EBSA’s database of abandoned plans, you may find that your former employer is in there but that the process for getting you your money back has already passed.  In that case, you should call the QTA —again that’s the Termination Administrator— for help.

If you go to EBSA’s searchable database and don’t find your old 401k, then you can actually call EBSA and speak to a real live human to get further help.  The phone number is 1-866-444-EBSA, but I will post it at EasyMoneySHow.com/35 so you don’t have to memorize that.

It’s important to get on this before fees eat up your 401k money.  So if you’ve ever contributed to a 401k at an old job and can’t recall if you took it with you by rolling it over, just do a quick search.  I tried it and it takes about 2 minutes.  Literally!

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EPISODE 34 ~ FIND YOURS: FDIC Insurance: How To Find Your Lost Money if Your Bank Went Under

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Our find yours topic for today is how to locate missing funds held by the FDIC.

FDIC stands for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  The FDIC is the independent federal agency that insures banks.  More specifically, it insures YOUR deposits in banks.  The FDIC was established by President Franklin Roosevelt after the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression.  The idea was to make sure people wouldn’t panic again and pull their money out of the nation’s banks all at once.  So, today, if a bank goes under, the FDIC is going to pay you back.  Well, it’ll pay up to $250,000 per depositor, which is plenty for most of us.

The FDIC maintains a webpage where you can search for money you left in a now defunct bank. When you get there, you search by your name or your business name.  There are also fields for  the name of the failed bank and the city and state where it was based, although I found just entering a last name generates results and sometimes a broader search is better.

If you find your name, then you fill out an FDIC claim form right on the website, have it notarized and mail it in.  The FDIC will respond by phone, mail or by sending you a check within 30 days.  Not bad, for a federal bureaucracy!

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EPISODE 33 ~ FIND YOURS: Parking Tickets: Check Out San Francisco’s Method Of Refunding Overpaid Or Duplicate Parking Tickets

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The City of San Francisco has unclaimed money for citizens and visitors who overpaid or paid duplicate parking tickets!

And that means other cities or counties could too!  People overpaid San Francisco a total of 600-thousand dollars between 1995 and 2014.  Oops!  My hometown really blew it this time.  Some citizens are owed just 20 bucks but others are due hundreds of dollars!  The City by the Bay is pretty aggressive with parking tickets.  I know my husband and I got one when we visited a couple of years ago.  So whether you live, work or visit San Francisco, think back to if you’ve EVER paid a parking ticket there, and if so, I recommend checking to see if you’re owed money.  The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is handling this and you can check the SFMTA website for your name.   Note that names are in the middle column of the spreadsheet, which is weird, so don’t miss it.  And consider this your heads up that if this happened in San Francisco, it could happen elsewhere.  Get a lot of parking tickets for whatever reason?  Google the name of the jurisdiction and the words “overpaid parking ticket” or similar and see if there’s money out there for YOU.

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