You may be one of thousands that has money being held somewhere right now that you didn’t know existed. The South Carolina Unclaimed Property Act was passed to create a place for state government to hold unclaimed funds that are presumed abandoned by citizens after a period of three to five years of inactivity. This includes monies from savings, checking account, stocks, security deposits, refunds, or reimbursements from electric and phone companies, payroll checks, customer overpayments and similar monies. Land and vehicles are not included under the Act.
In doing research for this article, I found a refund for the son of a staff member. In the past the Firm found life insurance money for clients from a parent that had died when the clients were children, and monies turned over from an improperly self-created preneed burial account at a local bank.
To check to see if you, a family member or friend may have money being held by the state, go to treasurer.sc.gov and follow the links for unclaimed property to search for you or a loved one. There are also other websites that may be holding unclaimed money for retirement (www.retirement.sc.gov), child support (www.state.sc.us/dss/csed/aband), unclaimed accounts held by other states (www.unclaimed.org), the Federal Government (www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/ MoneyOwed), or look for old savings bonds at (www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/ tools/toolstreasuryhunt).
Disclaimer: Information contained in this column is meant to be of general information on frequently asked questions concerning disability, elder law, estate planning and probate law, and does not contain specific legal advice to a client. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this column.
