Wyoming Holds More Than $100 Million in Unclaimed Property

Wyoming Holds More Than $100 Million in Unclaimed Property

CHEYENNE – Despite record amounts of payments over the past few years, Wyoming’s Unclaimed
Property Division of the State Treasurer’s Office is holding on to more money than ever as the amount of
money now being held exceeds $100 million.

Wyoming law stipulates properties that have reached the required dormancy period get reported no
later than Nov. 1 each year. Because of this requirement, October and November are traditionally the
months when the most money, securities and other properties are remitted.

Those wanting to see if they are owed any of the properties held by the State are encouraged to watch
the two-minute instructional video before searching the online database.

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“We have stepped up our efforts to reunite owners with their unclaimed properties, but the amount
turned into the State continues to outpace the amount we are able to return,” Wyoming State Treasurer
Curt Meier said. “We returned $7.4 million over the past fiscal year that ended June 30, and then in the
month of July we returned securities valued at more than $6.7 million.”

Thanks to the $3.54 million deposited in October and another $3.91 million deposited so far in
November, the amount of money held by the State has swelled to over $100.6 million.

Meier said staff members work to locate and contact owners of larger properties, but there are more
than 900,000 individual properties in the State’s database, meaning the vast majority of owners will only
get paid if they initiate a claim on their own.

“Even if you got a check from us a year ago, it’s worth the time to search to see if any of these new
properties turned over to the State belong to you,” Meier said. “We have received almost $10 million in
new funds since the start of this fiscal year.”

Unclaimed property is turned over when a business, agency or governmental entity owes money,
securities and/or the contents of a safe deposit box, among other items, to someone and for whatever
reason cannot locate the owner for a specified duration of time. The property is turned over to the State of
last known address, if an address was ever known. If there was no last known address, it is turned over to
the State in which the business was incorporated.

With this in mind, those who ever lived in another state may want to visit www.unclaimed.org and click
on the state (or states) on the map to get redirected directly to other official unclaimed property sites.

To make a valid claim at www.mycash.wyo.gov or any other state’s site, owners will need to provide
information about themselves and may need to submit official documents. This could be as simple as a
copy of a driver’s license, but additional documents may be required for those claiming as an heir or a
business.

Wyoming law requires the State to hold unclaimed property in perpetuity until it is claimed by the
rightful owner.