Providence, RI – The Office of Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner reunited 8,860 people with $11.7 million in unclaimed property in the fiscal year that ended on June 30.
"At the Treasurer's Office, we work hard every day to reunite Rhode Islanders with money and other unclaimed property that is rightfully theirs," General Treasurer Seth Magaziner said. "Many of the claims we process average a few hundred dollars, which helps a working family to buy groceries and fill the gas tank. If there's money out there with your name on it, we want to put it in your pocket."
Rhode Island Treasury's Unclaimed Property Division collects money and other tangible and intangible assets that get lost or abandoned, for the purpose of returning it with its rightful owner. Unclaimed property can include money left in old bank accounts and safe deposit boxes, uncashed paychecks, unused gift certificates, unreturned utility deposits, uncollected insurance payments and forgotten stocks and dividends.
In total, Treasury oversees more than $265 million of unclaimed property waiting to be reunited with Rhode Islanders across the state.
Warwick resident Harriet Landesberg was recently reunited a decades-old life insurance policy that she had forgotten existed. The 104-year-old was unaware she was owed about $5,000 in benefits until a family member saw her name during a search of the unclaimed property database.
Reclaiming unclaimed property is free and easy to do when you click the 'Unclaimed Property' button on the front page of the Rhode Island Treasury website, www.treasury.ri.gov.