You or your business may be struggling financially because of COVID-19, but there could be money just waiting for you to claim it.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis says an estimated one in five Floridians have unclaimed property just waiting, and it doesn’t cost you a dime to get it back.
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To give you an idea of what’s out there, $42.9 million was returned to the rightful owners in July -- a record for the state’s Division of Unclaimed Property.
“This is another amazing milestone for our Unclaimed Property Team, especially since our staff has been teleworking since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Despite these recent challenges, I’m extremely pleased that the Division persevered and was able to break these records and return a significant amount of money back to the pockets of Floridians,” Patronis said a news release Tuesday.
In addition, there has been more than $151 returned to Floridians since the state has been directly impacted by COVID-19.
To check to see if anything is owed to you or your business, go to FLTreasureHunt.gov.
Unclaimed property is a financial asset that is unknown or lost or has been left inactive, unclaimed or abandoned by its owner. The most common types of unclaimed property are dormant bank accounts, unclaimed insurance proceeds, stocks, dividends, uncashed checks, deposits, credit balances and refunds. Unclaimed property also includes contents from abandoned safe deposit boxes in financial institutions. Unclaimed property assets are held by business or government entities (holders) for a set period of time, usually five years. If the holder is unable to locate, re-establish contact with the owner and return the asset, it is reported and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Unclaimed Property.