The Treasury Department may owe you money. Here’s how to claim your cash
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DENVER — Treasurer Dave Young has a message for Coloradans: the state might have money that belongs to you.
“When people hear I’m the state treasurer, they usually think I’m trying to take their money,” Young said. “But I’m actually trying to give it back to you.”
In honor of Unclaimed Property Day on Feb. 1, Young wants to remind residents that there is more than $2.5 billion in unclaimed property in Colorado ready to be returned to rightful owners. The property includes things like unpaid wages, unused gift cards, life insurance payouts, uncashed checks and the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes.
“This is actual private money that people have been separated from,” Young said. “It's not because they're lazy or did anything wrong. Sometimes there's a life event that's happened that has separated them from this property or money, and we're just anxious to get it back to them.”
To check if you have unclaimed property, go to the Great Colorado Payback website and search your name and zip code. I searched mine and, unfortunately, didn’t have any surprise windfalls waiting for me. But if you’re one of the lucky ones, you can fill out a form online and the department will get back to you within 90 days. At the time of publication, Colorado has returned more than $850 million in unclaimed property.
“Colorado is obviously not the only state doing this, ” Young said. “These payback programs are the largest consumer protection program in the world, so we’re looking at hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars in global unclaimed property.”
While most of the unclaimed property is relatively small amounts of cash — anywhere from $10 to $100 — there are plenty of larger assets that come through their department. Take two gold bars for example, collectively worth more than $300,000. The bars were one of several items put on display at the treasury ahead of Unclaimed Property Day. The department also displayed earrings from 2nd and 3rd century Rome, as well as a $500 bill (President William McKinley is featured on this since-discontinued tender).
“Antiques Roadshow came by a while back and looked at this yellow diamond,” said unclaimed property director Bianca Garelli, holding up a stunning six and a half-carat ring. “It’s pretty valuable and dates back quite significantly, so it’s been really hard to find the family.”
The state is legally allowed to sell unclaimed property after three years. However, Garelli says there are some personal items that would never be put up for sale, referencing a Purple Heart and Bronze Star that currently sit in their vault. Garelli says they will turn these over to a veterans museum if they cannot find the owners.
Some of the big ticket items may end up going to auction, like the vintage Rolex on display.
“I’m keeping my eye on you,” Garelli joked as a fellow member of the media picked up the gold bars to get a closer look.
The hardest part of returning unclaimed property? Convincing people that the money is real. The department currently works with technology that helps them search for people who they believe have unclaimed property in the system, but most people don’t get back to them because they assume it’s a scam.
“We have two URLs and, I’ll admit, they both sound like scams,” Young said with a laugh. The sites are missingmoney.com and unclaimed.org and will take you to the unclaimed property portal. “People see these notices and those websites and think ‘Oh, that has to be a scam.’”
Even though they can’t always track owners down, Young says he loves his work for a number of reasons. He always appreciates moments when he and his team can help residents learn more about what they’re owed, especially during tough economic times.
“We get unfortunate situations where someone’s house was foreclosed, but there are tens of thousands of dollars in escrow waiting to come back to the original owner,” Young said. “To be able to claim that is huge for anyone, and we’re really happy to be a part of that process.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.