The State of New Mexico is sitting on about $239 million in unclaimed property and would like to dole it out to whomever it belongs to.
Anyone who wants to find out whether any of that unclaimed property belongs to them should visit www.missingmoney.com, New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke told KOB 4. MissingMoney is a private website operated by Avenu Insights & Analytics, based in Centreville, Va., which assists state and local governments with information and data services.
"That website is easy to use and allows you to search a name and by state or nationwide," Schardin Clarke told the station. "If you find unclaimed property there, there's a very easy form that it takes you to, to claim your property."
Property commonly goes unclaimed for a variety of reasons, Schardin Clarke said.
"The most common reasons that someone might have unclaimed property might be that they closed a banking account and didn't clear out the balance," she said.
Tax refund checks go uncashed, as do traveler's checks, gift certificates and other sources. Only about 4,000 New Mexicans check to to see if any unclaimed property is theirs.
"Someone might have been mailed a refund check for taxes but never cashed it, maybe because they moved and it couldn't be formatted," Schardin Clarke said. "We also have traveler's checks, gift certificates that were never redeemed – things like that."
It all adds up.
"Each year New Mexico takes in an average of about $32 million of new unclaimed property," Schardin Clarke said, "and we're only able each year to match about $10 million of that to the owners."
Visitors to the MissingMoney website may fill out a form for the state to look into. If it looks like there's a match between the individual and unclaimed property, the individual will be required to provide proof of identity with a notarized signature and copies of identification.
The website also works for all U.S. states, not just New Mexico.
New Mexico residents also may email unclaimed.property@state.nm.us or call the state's Unclaimed Property Office at 505-827-0668 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.