• More than $106.5 million owed to citizens and businesses in Wyoming 

CHEYENNE – Those looking for some extra spending money this holiday season are encouraged to visit www.mycash.wyo.gov to see if they are entitled to any of the $106.8 million owed to residents and former residents of the State.

The Unclaimed Property Division of the Wyoming State Treasurer’s Office has received more than $12.68 million in the past five months alone, which means that even if you have received a check in the past, there is a good chance that more money is being held in your name.

The State just paid more than $140,000 to a Lincoln County man in November, and the average check paid so far this fiscal year exceeds $1,080.

“National statistics show that one out of every ten Americans has unclaimed property waiting for them,” Treasurer Curt Meier said. “We encourage you to visitwww.mycash.wyo.gov to see if Wyoming has any of your money and also visit www.missingmoney.com to see if you are owed property from any other State.”

Wyoming returned more than $8 million in unclaimed property during the fiscal year that ended June 30, but the amount of money turned over to the State continues to exceed the amount paid, meaning the overall pot of unclaimed property continues to increase.

“It only takes a couple of minutes to search our website and then submit a claim if you discover that you are owed any unclaimed property,” Meier said. “There’s a 2-minute instructional video on the site that shows exactly how to search and then complete the process.”

Meier said there are more than 900,000 individual properties in the State’s database. While many of these may only be worth a few pennies, the largest is valued at over $1 million and dozens are worth at least $100,000. 

Unclaimed property is turned over when a business, agency or governmental entity owes money, securities and/or the contents of a safe deposit box, among other items, to someone and for whatever reason cannot locate the owner for a specified duration of time. The property is turned over to the state of last known address, if an address was ever known. If there was no last known address, it is turned over to the state in which the business was incorporated. Keeping this in mind, those who ever lived in another state may want to visit www.missingmoney.com.

To make a valid claim at www.mycash.wyo.gov or any other state’s site, owners will need to provide information about themselves and may need to submit official documents. This could be as simple as a copy of a driver’s license, but additional documents may be required for those claiming as an heir or a business.

Wyoming law requires the State to hold unclaimed property in perpetuity until it is claimed by the rightful owner.