ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The amount of unclaimed money sitting with the State of Maryland keeps growing, even as millions of dollars are being mailed back to owners automatically.
The Maryland Comptroller’s Office now holds $3.2 billion across 16.4 million unclaimed property accounts. Just seven months ago, the state reported holding $2.7 billion across 14.3 million accounts.
A search of the state’s unclaimed property website can reveal money you may not know is there.
Doreen Biden previously told WMAR-2 News she found about $1,000 from an old escrow account after searching her name.
“I went on the unclaimed property site and saw I had money,” Biden said.
Comptroller Brooke Lierman says changes to Maryland’s unclaimed property law last year are part of the reason for the increase.
“It added asset types like virtual currency, gift cards and IRAs, and it also updated and streamlined some current procedures to align the state with national best practices,” Lierman said.
The Comptroller’s Office also audits businesses to make sure they are turning over unclaimed money that belongs to Marylanders.
“We don’t want a business holding on to the money of Marylanders for a decade,” Lierman said.
More money coming into the system also means more work getting it back out.
As of Feb. 18, the Unclaimed Property Division had more than 24,000 claims in various stages of processing. The Comptroller’s Office now says that number has grown to approximately 42,000.
The office attributes the increase in claims in part to additional outreach and education and a new system that makes it easier for Marylanders to search for and claim their money.
Despite the increase in claims, processing times have improved.
When WMAR-2 News investigated delays last October, some Marylanders were waiting six months or longer to receive their money.
At the time, Maryland was still relying on a decades-old mainframe system to process unclaimed property claims, while more than 40 other states were already using the Kelmar Abandoned Property System, known as KAPS.
Maryland implemented KAPS last fall, allowing claimants to submit documents electronically and track their claims online.
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Lierman says claims are now generally taking about 60 to 80 days to process once all required documentation has been submitted.
The Comptroller also plans to request additional staff to help handle the growing workload.
“The more money we take in, then the more people we need to get the money out to folks,” Lierman said.
Thousands more automatic checks coming in October
Maryland’s modernization also brought another significant change: Quick Pay, which allows the state to automatically return certain unclaimed property without requiring the owner to initiate a claim.
RELATED: Maryland starts mailing checks to owners of unclaimed property; average check around $500
The program applies to certain single-owner individual properties worth less than $5,000 when the Comptroller’s Office can confidently identify and locate the owner.
“Our Quick Pay method allows us to find people who we’ve identified and know that they have money that’s under $5,000, and they don’t even need to initiate the claim,” Lierman said. “We just send them their check.”
Before sending the money, the state mails a letter about 45 days in advance to make sure it has the correct address. If that letter is returned as undeliverable, the check is not sent.
The first Quick Pay checks went out in December.
Since then, the Comptroller’s Office says it has mailed 23,178 checks totaling $11,349,428. The average check is $489.66.
Another 9,729 checks totaling $248,000 are expected to be mailed in mid-October.
“We try to do it quarterly,” Lierman said. “I think so far we’ve been doing it quarterly to semiannually.”
Quick Pay is currently limited to certain individual claims. Businesses, nonprofits and local governments are not eligible.
Lierman said expanding Quick Pay beyond individuals would require a change in state law.
The Comptroller also said Quick Pay generally involves property less than 10 years old because older records can make it more difficult for the state to proactively identify the correct owner.
Don’t wait for a Quick Pay check
Finding unclaimed property worth less than $5,000 does not necessarily mean the state will automatically send you a check.
Lierman says Marylanders who find property in their name should file a claim rather than waiting to see if they are selected for Quick Pay.
“Absolutely file that claim,” Lierman said. “If we haven’t been able to get to their property yet through the Quick Pay system, that will kick off the initiation and make it happen even more quickly.”
And much of the property sitting with the state involves relatively small amounts.
Of Maryland’s 16.4 million unclaimed property accounts, approximately 12 million, about 73 percent, are worth less than $50, according to the Comptroller’s Office.
Those properties still appear in the state’s online database.
The website displays property values in ranges rather than exact dollar amounts, which the Comptroller’s Office says is intended to help prevent fraud.
Unclaimed property can include money from old bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance benefits, refunds and other assets that a business or organization was unable to return to its owner.
Marylanders can search for their name and file a claim through the Comptroller’s unclaimed property website.
There is no deadline to claim the money.
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