Although Maine Unclaimed Property Week ended Feb. 27, it’s never too late to see if you have funds that you or your family forgot or never knew about.
Unclaimed Property consists of money and other financial assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner cannot be located after a specified period of time of inactivity. It includes items such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, life insurance policies, unpaid wages, stocks and dividends, refunds, and safe deposit box contents. Unclaimed Property does not include real estate, animals or vehicles.
Each and every year, tens of millions of dollars go unclaimed by Maine residents. These financial assets are turned over by thousands of national and local businesses and organizations by a law called MRSA Title 33, Chapter 45: Maine Revised Unclaimed Property Act. http://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch45sec0.html. The Maine Treasurer’s Office holds these assets, free of charge, until claimed by the owner or heir. The state is currently holding over $303,000,000 in unclaimed property. In the month of January alone, 55,782 claims were made against unclaimed property totaling $4,498,652.01 in payments to Maine people.
Treasurer Henry E.M. Beck said “Maine continues to play a leading role among states in reuniting people with their unclaimed property,” he said.
The Office of the Treasurer of State is established in Article V, Part Third of the Constitution of the State of Maine. The core duties of the Treasurer’s Office are debt management, cash management, trust fund administration and unclaimed property administration. Other major tasks assigned to the Treasurer are directorships on many of Maine’s quasi-governmental debt issuing agencies and distributions under the Municipal Revenue Sharing Program.
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