Newsroom

It’s Your Check. Cash it.

This week my office has mailed more than $1.3 million to almost 5,000 Mississippians who had unclaimed money that was about to become unclaimable. If you receive one of these checks, cash it.

It’s all part of my second annual “Money Match” – a pro-active outreach that I initiated last year.  As the name suggests, Money Match leverages widely available public records to match and return unclaimed money to owners, without the owner having to make a claim.

For 43 years, the State Treasurer has been the custodian of unclaimed money that has been lost or forgotten. It may be from an old savings account, an insurance payment, a retail rebate, or even funds left behind by a loved one. After five years of inactivity, that money is turned over to the State Treasury, where my team works to return it to its rightful owner.

There’s just one catch though:

While most unclaimed money remains claimable forever, checks that were issued to you by the state such as tax refunds, payments for a good or service or even payroll checks that go uncashed, become unclaimable after six years, reverting to the state’s general fund.

But my attitude is: this is your money. You should get it.

That’s why I’ve used every available resource to Money Match owners with these funds before the government takes them.

Now, in this age of so many scams, I totally expect questions about this effort. If you get one of these checks and want to validate it or ask questions about it, call my office at (601) 359-3600 or email us at unclaimed@treasury.ms.gov.

My team will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the check, the source of funds, or about unclaimed money in general.

In fact, by visiting my website treasury.ms.gov, you may search for and find other unclaimed monies you, your loved ones, business, church, or other organization might have. I encourage everyone to search for unclaimed money regularly.

In just over five years, I’ve returned more unclaimed money to Mississippians than all previous Treasurers combined. In fact, of the $290 million in unclaimed money returned to Mississippians since 1982, more than half of that – $150 million – has been under my watch.

Money Match is just the latest tool I’m using to get more unclaimed money than ever back to Mississippians. It’s your check. Cash it.