ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Thousands of Maryland residents could soon find an unexpected check in their mailbox. The Maryland Comptroller's Office is automatically sending checks to residents for unclaimed property worth less than $5,000.
"Because of state legislation that took effect last October, we are now able to send checks, unclaimed property checks, out to Marylanders when we know who they are, and for an amount less than $5,000," Comptroller Brooke Lierman said.
Unclaimed property is money a business owes you but couldn't find you to deliver. This can include refunds, uncashed paychecks, or contents of a safe deposit box.
Doreen Biden discovered $1,000 from an old escrow account through the system.
"Everybody should check. Especially if you have an incident like I had," Biden said.
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The Comptroller's Office spent over $1 million to upgrade their systems, making it simpler to find your money and get it back to you. The new system launched last fall with a feature that automatically sends checks when the state can verify account holders' identity and the amount is under $5,000.
About 1,000 checks went out in December, with another 5,800 expected in late March. The average check is around $500.
The state can often locate residents when private companies cannot because they have access to more comprehensive records.
"Maybe you moved and did not update your address, and that's why the company that was holding your money couldn't find you but you have updated your voter registration or something, so we still have a record of you somewhere in state government," Lierman said.
Tax information is not used in this process. Before any check is sent, the office mails a test letter 45 days in advance.
"The recipient does not need to respond or do anything. For us, it's a way of making sure the letter does not come back as undeliverable, or if the person has moved, or if there's some other system error with the postal service, we can learn about it by sending that test letter out," Lierman said.
The system is expected to resolve a backlog where Marylanders waited months, sometimes a year, for claims they filed on their own, however, there's still a delay.
"It takes about 3 months still to process and send out those checks, but every week we are whittling down that number of days. And so, we are getting caught up and really excited to be getting this money out more and more and more quickly to Marylanders," Lierman said.
To verify a check isn't a scam, residents can search their name on the state's unclaimed property website, look for official state letterhead and call the Comptroller's Office with questions.
The state says there are more than 14.3 million unclaimed property accounts totaling over $2.7 billion. The average account holds $189.47. And according to the Comptroller's Office, individuals with claims under $50 will appear in the online system, and the amount of unclaimed property will be shown as a range of between $0-$100. They do not list specific dollar amounts to help combat fraud.
In addition to the state's website, people can search MissingMoney.com for property in other states.
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