Brooke Lierman of Maryland Comptroller’s Office urges Marylanders to utilize her Unclaimed Property database and check whether any cash or property that belongs to them can be recovered through it.
Comptroller Lierman says Marylanders who have money or other items held by the state that have gone unclaimed should check the list to see if their name or a family member’s is included – discovering it could change lives! Unclaimed Property could include long-forgotten bank accounts, stocks or jewelry left in safety deposit boxes or any number of valuable objects that have gone unclaimed.
Nearly 33 million Americans – or one out of seven – own unclaimed property according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Unclaimed property includes financial accounts or items of value belonging to people who haven’t taken action within several years to claim them, according to this data source.
Maryland’s Comptroller’s office reports that Maryland has over 1.3 million unclaimed accounts with an aggregate value of over $2 billion in unclaimed property.
Last year, the agency distributed a 180-page Unclaimed Property insert in newspapers throughout the state listing 86,000 accounts worth more than $83 million. Individuals and businesses alike can search their online Unclaimed Property database.
The Uncliamed Money Maryland Comptroller encourages anyone who sees their name or the names of family members listed to contact his/her office by either dialing 410-767-1700 in Central Maryland (410-767-1700), calling 1-800-782-7383 in Toll Free Maryland (1-800-782-7383), emailing unclaim@marylandtaxes.gov, or via their own webmail service provider – in order to take steps toward recovering lost property.
In Fiscal Year 2021, the Comptroller’s Office granted 33,746 claims totaling more than $61 Million.
Since 2007, our office has returned more than $970 million of unclaimed property back to its rightful owners, while state unclaimed property offices collectively returned over $2.87 billion of unclaimed property back to rightful owners during FY2015.