​​​​​​​​​​​​The Treasurer can assist residents in searching the State of Ohio’s unclaimed funds list and filing with the Ohio Department of Commerce for those funds. Unclaimed funds are assets that have been unclaimed or have become dormant for a specified period of time, from two to five years.

The State of Ohio holds these funds until their rightful owner claims them. Some sources of unclaimed funds are:

Inactive checking or savings accounts
Uncashed checks
Undelivered stock shares
Uncashed insurance benefits
Forgotten rent
Forgotten utility deposits
Safe deposit box contents
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The Department of Commerce has an agreement with county treasurers in Ohio to make that county’s unclaimed funds list available to the public. The list is on file in the Treasurer’s office. The Treasurer also makes the list available to the public at the county fair and upon request for community events.

Use caution if you are contacted by a “finder”. While there are services that will actually locate and recover assets for you, they charge a fee to recover them. The government agencies that hold these funds make the lists available free of charge.

There are scam artists who use unclaimed funds as a “hook “ to defraud people. These scams are usually of two varieties. One asks for an up-front fee to pay for the cost of recovering the funds. Never pay an up-front fee. The other common variety of fraud asks you to supply information to “help”locate your funds such as your social security number, bank account or credit card information. This information is then used for identity theft. Never provide personal information to parties who contact you without being certain with whom you are dealing.

To search Ohio’s Unclaimed Funds list, click on the following
link: http://com.ohio.gov/unfd/TreasureHunt.aspx

Other states’ and federal lists can be accessed through the National Unclaimed Property Network at: http://www.nupn.com/