NY State May Have Money for You
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: December 17, 2012
Jim Marasco, a partner at EFP Rotenberg LLP in Rochester joined Katrina Irwin on News 8 at Sunrise Monday.
He talked about how NY residents can recover abandoned funds from utilities and other businesses.
Marasco says, by law, banks, insurance companies, utilities, etc., are required to surrender inactive accounts to the State. The NYS Comptroller's office serves as the custodian of these "abandoned" or "unclaimed" funds. Once you prove you are entitled to these funds, they'll be paid to you without charge. In most cases, this process can be done online. Accordingly to NYS, they are currently holding onto $12 Billion of unclaimed funds.
To find out if the State is holding money for you, click here.
Click through to the "Search for Lost Money" tabs and enter your individual name or organization
If there is a potential match, you'll be prompted to answer a few additional questions that may help identify you as the owner of the funds being held.
You won't know how much is being held initially until they validate the request and you may have to send in additional information to assist them in verifying that you are the rightful owner.
If your claiming the money on behalf of an estate or deceased relative, the process can become more complicated but shouldn't deter you. It could be well worth your efforts.
