(Part 1 of 2)

As the littlest state in the nation, Rhode Island is justifiably known as "Little Rhody", but there's nothing little about the amount of Rhode Island unclaimed money currently being held by the Rhode Island Office of the General Treasurer. According to the office's web site, the state now holds more than $124 million of the peoples' cash, and the only thing stopping people from taking back their funds is knowledge and the ability to search correctly.

It is easy to understand why people have trouble accepting the reality of unclaimed money because no one expects they will get free money. But "free" is not exactly the correct term to describe these forgotten funds, because they technically already belong to the people who are able to claim them (except in situations where they come from a deceased relative). So people who dismiss this phenomenon as some sort of scam are doing themselves a disservice by not realizing exactly where these monies come from.

According to the Office of the General Treasurer's web site, what follows are some of the most common forms of unclaimed assets in Rhode Island: account receivable credits and payables, insurance payments, safe deposit boxes, credit memos, gift certificates, stocks and dividends, bank accounts, refunds, wages. There are many other types, but those listed are the most common, and each is considered "unclaimed" or abandoned after a certain number of years of inactivity. Once this dormancy period has gone by, the holders must to pass them along to the state for holding until the rightful owner makes a claim on them. The state will never actually take possession of them, so there is not a time limit to claim lost money.

Even after learning the process by which assets become unclaimed, it's still difficult to wrap our minds around the fact that there are hundreds of millions owed to Rhode Island residents, and tens of billions across the country. It is difficult to believe that people have simply forgotten about these monies, but the truth is they have. In fact experts estimate that in the United States 7 in 10 people are owed money. The difficulty is knowing how to track down and claim our money.

(to be continued)

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This post comes from Brandon Ballenger at partner site