(Part 2 of 2)

Even after learning the way in which assets become unclaimed, it is still tough to wrap our brains around the fact that there really are hundreds of millions waiting to be found by Rhode Island residents, and tens of billions across the country. It is hard to accept that people have somehow just forgotten about these properties, but the fact is they have. In fact it has been estimated that nationally 7 in 10 people are due a claim. The difficulty is knowing how to track down and claim our cash.

More often than not, people get in their own way of finding their unclaimed money by doing things like looking on the wrong sites and searching just one time. Not all unclaimed money sites are equal. Many don't have any real missing money records, and even the handful that do often contain mostly outdated data. Even actual state records are notoriously inaccurate because they are not updated in real time. Given that monies are turned over all the time, and each type has a unique dormancy period, a claim for a given person's name may not be added to the system until the day, week or month after they searched, leaving them with the incorrect conclusion that they are not owed money.

Although in recent years Rhode Island has increased attempts to give back abandoned assets to the rightful owners, more money keeps coming in than is given back to the owners, so the total will continue to grow, giving each citizen a greater chance of finding a claim. The state simply doesn't have the ability to efficiently locate everyone who is owed money so the best thing people from Rhode Island can do is to learn how to search like professional finders do, and then use those strategies to maximize their search potential.

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This week, I'm answering questions from readers, because there's an

Area towns get share of state's unclaimed property
Local towns are among the 124 municipalities receiving a share of the unclaimed property money from the State Treasurer's Office.

Money in mothballs
THOUSANDS of dollars in unclaimed cash is owed to Bayside community groups that do not exist.