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Michigan reaping millions by hiding unclaimed money worth less than $50
- NavinF 3y agoSome excerpts below. Imagine a world where everyone knew that it costs $0 to look up records from a database with 17.6 million rows. The whole db fits in memory even on a laptop. >More than 17.6 million unclaimed properties under that amount — un-cashed checks or money from forgotten bank accounts — are worth a collective $189.6 million, according to data from the Michigan Treasury, which contends that putting those properties on its public search website would not be “practical.” > “We set $50 as a per property minimum because with millions of properties in our custody (many less than $1.00), listing everything is not practical, from system storage and cost perspectives,” he told Bridge Michigan. >Stanton noted that residents can still find out if you own any unclaimed properties worth less than $50 by phoning the state call center (517-636-5320) between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays. >Massachusetts made a similar change last year, and several other states had already listed properties worth less than $50 on their unclaimed property websites, including California, Indiana, Missouri, Idaho, Hawaii and Wyoming — which list exact values. >Doing the same should not be hard in Michigan because the state uses the same vendor as Connecticut, Lizzi said, pointing to Kelmar Associates LLC of Massachusetts, which is currently managing Michigan’s unclaimed property database under a $4.4 million contract that runs through September 2027.