PA treasurer has $4.3B in unclaimed property. Find out if some belongs to you

If you haven’t checked in a while, or ever, it may be time to see if the Pennsylvania Treasury is holding unclaimed property that belongs to you.

The office has $4.3 billion worth of unclaimed property as of the end of August, and all of it belongs to current and former residents, businesses and other organizations with connections to the state.

Unclaimed property typically comes in the form of uncashed checks – from things like settlement payments, utility refunds, forgotten bank accounts, stock earnings and more – that are turned over to the state when they are deemed undeliverable to the recipient.

Here’s what to know about the process, how much the state is returning and how you can check and see if some is yours.

What to know about unclaimed property in Pennsylvania

The state is holding about 32 million properties totaling $4.3 billion, treasury press secretary Samantha Heckel told the Centre Daily Times. The average claim amount is $1,500, but it can range from a couple bucks to millions of dollars.

The largest single property handled by the treasury totaled $5.2 million and was paid out to a company in 2015, and 36 paid claims have been worth a million dollars or more.

Many individuals could have multiple unclaimed properties lingering, and State Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s site says 1 in 10 Pennsylvanians have a claim waiting for them.

A majority of unclaimed property is not being returned, however. The treasury returned around 35% of properties reported to the office in 2021, the press secretary said. The office holds properties for multiple years, though tangible property may be auctioned after three years.

“Needless to say, work continues to locate the owners of the remaining unclaimed property and return it to them!,” Heckel wrote in an email.

The division “attempts to contact the owner directly” for unclaimed property valued at $250 or more, but does not have an automatic returns process in place, and “Pennsylvania’s law would need to be changed for the Treasury to do that,” Heckel continued.

Several states have made changes in recent years to increase the amount of returned cash, including North Carolina, which amended state law to allow the treasurer’s unclaimed property division to proactively mail checks to those who are owed $250 or less.

Heckel said the office has taken steps in recent years to return funds, including updating the website to improve the claims process, outreach events, publishing unclaimed listings, quickly uploading new claims into the website and more. Of the website upgrades, Heckel said “Soon, we will implement a direct deposit option for many claims.”

In April, the office warned against a text scam posing to be the treasury reaching out about unclaimed properties.

How to search for unclaimed property in Pennsylvania

Individuals and representatives of businesses and organizations can use the state’s online portal to search the system and see if they have unclaimed property waiting.

Centre County residents and entities have more than $19.5 million lingering in the system, a total of 167,546 properties.

To search the Pennsylvania Treasury portal, you must enter a last name or company name and can provide additional information to narrow the search. You can “add” multiple properties to make a claim if you have more than one, and you may need to provide a Social Security number or other proof of identity.

“For most folks, filing a claim takes just a few minutes,” Heckel said.

Payout and return times vary, the office noted, but smaller dollar claims – those less than $5,000 and claimed with a Social Security number – can be processed quickly.

If you think you have unclaimed property in other states, you can use Missing Money or Find my Funds to search multiple states at once.