$24 billion forgotten or abandoned?

$24 billion in assets lies unclaimed says the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators .

Common forms of unclaimed property include savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed dividends or payroll checks, refunds, travelerís checks, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders or gift certificates (in some states), insurance payments or refunds and life insurance policies, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments, utility security deposits, mineral royalty payments, and contents of safe deposit boxes.

If a financial institution hasn't had contact with an owner of an account for a year or more, they turn it over to the states who may or may not contact you.

In Missouri, there's $400 million in unclaimed assets in Wealth waiting for the taking.

Last year over 1.3 million claims were paid to owners totaling about $1.2 billion.

You can conduct free searches of state and federal databases. NAUPA tells you how.