As of October 2007, it was determined by the Office of the State Treasurer of SC that the state is currently holding $200 million that belongs to citizens who need only step forward and claim it, if they can find it. Despite increased efforts to reunite South Carolina unclaimed money with its rightful owners, which lead to a record return of $900,000 in Sept. 2007, the pile of cash continues to grow.

Each year, South Carolina, like most states, continues to take in more money than it's able to return to the people. The primary problem is the fact that most people are completely unaware that these funds even exist, which is obvious, or they'd never have forgotten about them long enough for them to be considered "unclaimed". Even those who have learned about the billions of dollars in unclaimed property all across the country usually don't know how to go about finding them.

South Carolina is what is known as a "custodial state", which means that they never actually own your assets, they just hold them for you, and there is no time limit under which you must claim your cash. While there are dozens of different types of unclaimed property, the state treasurer lists the following as the most common types under the Palmetto Payback Program: "dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks (including paychecks), unclaimed insurance proceeds, forgotten utility deposits, uncashed dividend checks and unexchanged shares of stock."

SC unclaimed money is handed over to the state treasurer's office after long periods of inactivity. These periods are known as "dormancy periods", and each type of unclaimed cash has it's own. Some are only a year, while many years must pass for some types of funds to be handed over to the state. On top of that, a state employee must physically enter the account information in to their system if there is to be any public, searchable record. For these reasons, it is important that anyone who is serious about finding their missing money, search often and search on the right sites.

Some sites promise a database, but more often than not it's anything but reliable. Not only are they often out of date, but some are just down right bogus. These sites use "teaser" searches to hook a sucker by telling them they are due X amount of money, when that dollar amount is really completely random. Essentially it's a dishonest sales tactic.

In addition to knowing where to search, people also need to remember to search outside of South Carolina. Many folks have moved to South Carolina after spending their lives in many other states. Others may have always lived in SC, but if they had an insurance company out of state or the corporate headquarters of an employer is based outside of the state, then there's a good chance they're still owed money, but S. Carolina will never have any record of these funds. It is important to search the state records of any state where a person may have had any type of business dealings.

It can't be overstated, having the assistance of unclaimed money experts in your search for unclaimed money is vitally important. An expert in this field can help you overcome all the issues that plague many searchers, including the few mentioned in this article.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for South Carolina unclaimed money and missing money across the country.

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