GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Treasury has millions of dollars in lost or forgotten assets, and nationally, unclaimed property is in the billions of dollars.
Forgotten assets include dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, valuables left in safe deposits boxes and stock certificates.
So, to help Michiganders get their money back, Governor Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed February 1, 2024 as Unclaimed Property Day in Michigan — urging people to reclaim their cash.
"We certainly have hundreds of millions of dollars that people can claim," Unclaimed Property State Administrative Manager Terry Stanton said. "It's very common. States all over the country have operations like ours, and we're happy to return property to people."
The governor's proclamation claims Michigan has more than $2 billion in unclaimed property — like uncashed checks, insurance proceeds and other financial assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner can't be found after a certain amount of time.
It also says the state holds more than 20 million accounts that need to be returned to Michiganders, adding that the state returns more than $130 million each year.
Federal officials say, at the national level, one in seven Americans have unclaimed property.
"Spread the word, right? Let other people know. Check your family, let your family know if they've got property on our site. We want to return as much as we can, and last year, we did a record for our operation. We returned $138.5 million to Michigan residents," Stanton added. "We find out when we go out and we do outreach. We go to a conference or an event and we have a couple of staff there to search people's names and start a claim for them. We find that it's about one in three that, believe it or not, might have property with us. So, it's far more common than a lot of people think."
Click here to see if you have unclaimed property from the state.
If you do have unclaimed property, the state says to click the "claim" button. From there, the state will contact you to let you know what documentation to provide in order to reclaim your property.
