Are you richer than you think? How to find out—and what experts say to do if you are

A few weeks ago, when my fiance discovered that he had a custodial stock account he didn't know about, I let myself indulge in a familiar daydream. "What if there's money out there for me, too? What if, actually, I'm, like, rich and don't even know it?"

Look, we've all thought about it at one point or another — at least those of us who spent the summer before 8th grade reading "Great Expectations." And while I've pretty much ruled out that I have some anonymous benefactor waiting in the wings, it's not that far-fetched that the Ermey family has forgotten or lost money awaiting us.

In 2023 Americans had about $70 billion worth of unclaimed property, including uncashed paychecks, forgotten rebates, inactive brokerage accounts and life insurance benefits, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. In the fiscal year that ended in June of last year alone, states returned more than $4 billion worth of property back to their owners, NAUPA reported.

Who's to say that some of that couldn't be mine? Or yours?

To find out, you'll likely have to do some digging. Just make sure that you have a plan in case you hit paydirt, says Megan McCoy, a financial therapist and professor at Kansas State University. Otherwise, you may be tempted to use the money for purposes other than advancing your financial goals.

"Windfalls can mess with our mental accounting," she says. "We don't treat that money the same."

Of course, you'll have to find money in the first place before you have to worry about misusing it.

If you have a specific idea of what money may be lying around for you, you may have to go through a specialized process to find and claim it. If you suspect you have a lost private-sector pension benefit, for instance, you'll want to start your search at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which holds unclaimed benefits for employees who weren't paid when their retirement plan ended.

To conduct a more generalized search, check out MissingMoney.com, a NAUPA-endorsed site which operates as a clearinghouse for unclaimed property that nearly every state participates in. You can search your name or the name of a business nationwide or home in on states where you've lived or done business.

"It's a great resource, especially for folks who have moved around a lot," says Catherine Seat, communications director for the National Association of State Treasuries. "It's easier to search in one place and be able to find all that at once."

In searching my name, I found a mix of assets that belonged to various Ermeys, including my grandparents, aunts and uncles and — I think — myself. The assets I found in my name, some old cash back rewards and a cashier's check, from what I can tell, are worth $188. They're all from companies I've done business with but were listed in a state where I've never lived.

That's not unusual, says Seat. "The primary rule is the unclaimed property goes to the state of the owner's last known address, but if that's unknown for some reason it goes to the state of incorporation for the business," she says.

No two state's rules about claiming property are exactly the same, Seat notes, and the rules may vary by property type, too. The rules for claiming a small stock dividend, for instance, may be different than claiming a large cash settlement or a deceased relative's safety deposit box.

Once you make a claim through MissingMoney, the appropriate state will contact you with the rules and instructions for how to claim your property. No matter what you're missing, you'll have to provide documentation to prove that you're the rightful owner of the asset.

"If you think that you found some unclaimed property that's yours, then it's just being very diligent in working with the state, and having some patience of working with them to confirm your identity," Seat says. "And then you get some money that was just misplaced."

Ideally, you'd use "found" money the same way you use the rest of your funds, putting at least some of it toward financial goals such as building an emergency fund, investing for retirement or paying down debt.

"We know, psychologically speaking, that we tend to treat it differently," says McCoy.

When people receive money they didn't think they had, one of two cognitive biases that can keep people from using the money productively tends to kick in, she says.

Fuzzy mental accounting

Money is, for the most part, fungible: a dollar from one account does the same job as a dollar from another. But an influx of unexpected cash can create "non-fungibility" — a feeling that, while the money you earn should go toward paying your bills and funding your retirement, money you "found" is for having fun or treating yourself, says McCoy.

"We hope people use their income tax refunds for their financial future. It often ends up being spent on TVs," she says.

Accounts as symbols

On the other end of the spectrum, some people who discover missing accounts experience what's known as "endowment effect" — in which they're hesitant to spend or move money because of a perceived symbolic significance.

Those who receive life insurance payouts, for instance, may fear that whatever they plan to buy with that money is too frivolous or disrespectful to the deceased, McCoy says.

Or say you inherited a pile of stock from a grandparent, all invested in one blue-chip company. Some financial planners would urge you to slowly sell out of the position in favor of a more diversified portfolio. You might instead hang on to the stock "because that's what grandpa bought," McCoy says.  

Spending money — or not — isn't inherently good or bad, McCoy says. But when you come into a previously unknown sum of money, it's a good idea to ask yourself how the money would be used to maximize your financial health and wellbeing, she says.

And if you're worried about falling into the mental accounting trap, try earmarking your accounts for financial goals now, McCoy says assigning names such as "retirement account," "wedding savings" or "vacation fund." That way, she says, you have pre-selected landing spots for any money you manage to find.

"Mental accounting can be a good thing, too," she says. "We can use it to help ourselves rather than hurt ourselves.

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