Annual reminder: you may have unclaimed funds that are being held by your state (US) or other government.
There are many reasons you might have unclaimed funds: abandoned accounts, unclaimed deposits, uncashed checks, misspelled names, estate funds, incorrect addresses, misplaced inheritance and trusts, etc, and your government is required to hold your property until you claim it.
They will not seek you out, and most people are completely unaware they may have lost funds or property being held by the state.
Every state in the US and most governments have an official website where you can check whether you have unclaimed property and submit a claim. There are typically no fees, and you shouldn’t need an attorney or solicitor to claim them.
Just search ‘[my state] or [my country] unclaimed property’ (or ‘biens non réclamés’)
Make sure you’re at the official site for your government and not one of the many scam sites trying to get a cut by doing this for you. The official sites are typically easy and should not require a 3rd party. There should be no extra fees.
If you’re in the US, check every state you’ve lived in. Moving state is one of the major reasons this happens, and your unclaimed funds will not move to a new state with you.
e: Here’s my previous year’s thread on this, with more discussion. This isn’t sovcit bullshit. It’s real.
Also note that you’re unlikely to find life-changing amounts this way. Most people report a few dollars to a few thousand. Large amounts motivate lawyers to seek you out.
e2: I wonder how much this could change a government’s budget if enough people started claiming these funds at once? Would that basically do what the run on banks did? The money is hypothetically there, but it’s not really there at scale.