Recently, I became a conservator for my father in order to protect his finances after he fell victim to some scammers. Along the way, the lawyer who helped me with the conservatorship recommended I search for any unclaimed property in my father’s name.
Unclaimed property is money owed to an individual or business that the payor could not deliver because it could not locate the person or entity entitled to the funds. In such a situation, the payor delivers those funds to state-run unclaimed property offices, which hold them in case a claimant comes forward. On my father’s behalf, I found and claimed a small IRA he had set up in the 1980s and forgotten about, along with some residual funds from bank accounts that he had never closed.
After this success, I looked up my organization, the American Astronomical Society (AAS), on the DC Unclaimed Property website and found several entries. DC’s site, like those in many other jurisdictions, does not list exactly how much money is being held—it provides just an over or under amount (over $100, for example).
Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.