Although you may not realize it, people often don’t know how much money they actually have. There are various ways that money can get lost, and you may not even realize that you have lost that money. You could lose this money due to improper record keeping, lack of knowledge, or just pure chance. Here are a few ways to go looking for any money that you may be missing.
IRS
The IRS keeps records of unclaimed or undelivered tax refunds that you can claim. You may have unclaimed refunds from taxes that you paid on wages when you did not have to file a tax return. If you chose to have a check mailed to you and you never received it, you can also claim this money as an undelivered payment. The IRS website will walk you through the steps to check if you have unclaimed or undelivered refunds and how you can claim them. It may take a bit of paperwork, but it could definitely be worth it, especially if they have a lot of your money.
Unclaimed Assets
There is nearly $33 billion in unclaimed assets that people just aren’t aware of. You may unclaimed financial assets that you never knew about or that you have forgotten. The only way to find out if they are out there is to search for these assets. Use a company that specializes in finding lost money to search state and national records for unclaimed insurance policies, stocks, forgotten bank accounts, or back wages. They will help you figure out the paperwork, who to send it to, and anything else that you need to do to get your money back to you.
Past Employers
Most full-time employers provide some kind of retirement fund for their employees. Sometimes these are transferable between employers when you leave your job, but you may forget to do so, or it may not transferable and you forgot that it existed. Go back through your records to make sure that you are aware of the various retirement funds that you have created and where that money is currently. You should also check with your former companies to make sure you aren’t missing back wages that you are owed.
The above guidelines will assist to locate your lost money from any institution to bail you out of financial hardship. Therefore, you should take the initiative to visit the mentioned facilities and recover the funds. The cost you may pay for this assistance is worth the money that you will recover in your search.