The state Treasurer's office takes control of millions of dollars, which are turned over by the business that are not able to contact the rightful owners or heirs. According to the Unclaimed Property Act of Alabama of 2004 , the unclaimed property is collected, safeguarded and returned to the rightful owners by the state Treasurer's office and held until the rigthful owner is found.

Most property is classified as unclaimed if it has been abandoned or inactive for a period of 3 - 5 years. However, uncashed payroll checks become unclaimed after one year and utility deposits after two years. Each year billions of dollars in dormant or lost accounts go without ever being found when companies and banks lose track of the rightful or heir owner of the property. This could be due to reasons such as name changes (divorces/marriages), misspelled names, businesses going bankrupt, mergers, unexpected relocation of jobs, address changes without prior notification, death, post office errors etc. If you know anyone who has ever moved or died, the state of Alabama is probably holding unclaimed funds in their name. Always search your name under various lastt name misspellings, nick names and maiden names.

However, due to state law most States have significant amounts of unclaimed money or property that are NOT transferred over and therefore will not appear in the Alabama Unclaimed Property Division online database. A few of these unclaimed accounts might include: State income tax refunds (both current and prior), State issued checks or warrants, property tax refunds, unclaimed state employee checks or state employee pension benefits and possibly others.

Also, has an Alabama resident you may very likely have unclaimed money being held by a different State. A few reasons are because one has lived in another state, worked in another state, the holder of your unclaimed money is incorporated in another state (per Texas vs New Jersey 1965, unclaimed property with an unknown address or whose last known address is a foreign country is transferred over to the state in which the 'holder' is incorporated), or that the unclaimed account is not a asset type that is transferred to the State but to a Federal government agency.

For the most complete and thorough Alabama Unclaimed Money Search, our service as the Web's premiere site includes access to over 160 online, updated databases (including the above exceptions) encompassing over 150 million unclaimed accounts in excess of $40 BILLION. Searches are unlimited, for a lifetime and with no monthly fees. Everyone should check regularly to see if they have any unclaimed money - for $millions are transferred to the government agencies each month.