For years, I've been receiving mail saying, You might have unclaimed money waiting. "Yeah, right" I thought, tossing each envelope into the trash. But last week, I decided to call the number and sure 'nuf, I *do* have unclaimed money. Seems an insurance policy I purchased long ago (when a friend needed me to sign up, so he could keep his job as an insurance salesman) had lost track of me (cuz I moved so many times since). ••• continued ••• Turns out, the company went public, and their procedure at the time for dealing with policy-holders who could not be located was to turn over any funds to the state. It has been years since I got that policy, which has grown considerably in value. I won't be independently wealthy (like many of you), but it's a nice chunk o' change. I had to provide copious documentation proving I am the person named in the policy. All the forms had to be notarized, certified, registered and signed in blood. So if you get a letter saying, You might have unclaimed money available, don't immediately dismiss it like I did. The company that helped me recover these funds asked for ~7% of the recovered amount. Seems fair enough. The lady I spoke with was very helpful, despite my skepticism. She sent me all the forms & documents I needed to claim my money. When I took the package to the post office, to register it, the guy behind the counter saw the address and said, "Here's another one! How much are you getting?" I guess this is more common than I thought. The state forms say, "Don't even *think* about calling us until at least 6 months have passed." You can bet, six months and one day, I'll be on the horn calling Arnold, saying, "Where's my money, Arnold?" |
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