Treasury's Unclaimed Property Administration Launches Outreach Campaign to Return Assets to Counties and Municipalities
(TRENTON) – The New Jersey Department of the Treasury's Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA) kicked off an expanded outreach campaign today to reunite New Jersey's counties and municipalities with their rightful property.
UPA will proactively contact the 350 municipal and county governments which currently have unclaimed property being safeguarded by the State. Types of unclaimed property that the Administration may be holding for local governments include vendor checks, credit balances, and various other outstanding payments.
"UPA's new targeted effort to reconnect counties and municipalities with their unclaimed property will benefit all residents who rely on local services provided by their communities," said State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio. "The Unclaimed Property Administration is on pace to return a record number of claims to their rightful owners this year, and we applaud its ongoing efforts to increase outreach."
"We usually associate unclaimed property with individuals who may have a bank account they forgot about, or a utility deposit that was not returned successfully," said Steve Harris, Unclaimed Property Administrator. "We also encourage businesses, nonprofits, and local governments to use our free online search tool for any unclaimed property that we may be holding onto for them."
This new local government outreach comes in addition to UPA's annual efforts to notify people of any unclaimed property being held by the State. UPA has an Outreach Team whose entire purpose is reuniting abandoned property with its owners through various outreach initiatives, including mass mailings, media campaigns, and attendance at state fairs, community centers and other public locations and events throughout the year. The Administration works with legislative district offices to communicate with constituents, and last year over 24,000 people were reached through this collaboration.
UPA also publishes a list each summer in newspapers across New Jersey of all of the names of people who had property turned over to the State within the past year. Last year's ad included nearly 225,000 names.
In many cases, the owners of the unclaimed property have moved or passed away, making outreach efforts to encourage residents to check the state database integral to the return of the property. Through May, UPA has already returned $175 million to about 66,000 rightful owners in Fiscal Year 2023, and has returned $2.4 billion to rightful owners since the inception of the program. UPA currently holds more than $6 billion in unclaimed assets.
Unclaimed property is a mechanism for the State of New Jersey to safeguard property that has been abandoned or lost for three years. It can include bank accounts, utility deposits, insurance payouts, and even real physical property.
Anyone can search for unclaimed property 24/7 for free on the UPA website: unclaimedproperty.nj.gov.
Official Site of The State of New Jersey
