Unclaimed Cash: How to Find Out If You’re Owed Thousands in New York State

NEW YORK — It’s Tax Day, so if you haven’t been thinking about money yet, now you are.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some cash with your name on it? There could be.

The New York State Comptroller’s Office currently has $17.5 billion in “missing money” from ordinary people, just like you, and returns $1.5 million to claimants every day! According to the State, only $143,580,082 was returned in 2023.

As of March, the comptroller’s office had more than $4.6 billion in unclaimed cash owed to more than 24 million accounts in New York City.

Manhattan have the most unclaimed funds ($2.3 billion), while account holders in Brooklyn and Queens are EACH owed nearly $1 billion. The numbers are also clear on Long Island, as 1.4 million accounts owed more than $869 million (Nassau County wins). In Westchester County, more than 350 million accounts are owed more than $375 million. The list goes on.

See this map of unclaimed funds for a regional breakdown o see here.

Do I have unclaimed funds?

If you want to know if any unclaimed cash is yours you can review on this website. All you need to do is enter your last name (or a few more details if that returns too many results). Try misspelling your name, just to be safe, if nothing comes up on an initial search.

It is also worth looking up the names of your relatives, especially those who have passed away. The accounts date back to the 1940s, and officials say you could be entitled to those funds.

New Jersey y Connecticut they also have offices that handle unclaimed funds. The money is often checks sent to the wrong address that never cleared. Most of them are in $50 or $100 quantities, but you never know.