Find money you’re owed in the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Go online, look yourself up in a database, and find free money. It sounds like a too-good-to-be-true scam, but it’s not—it’s the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt.

State officials highlighted the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt on February 1st, National Unclaimed Property Day. Unclaimed property could be lost utility deposits, uncashed insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts, or abandoned safe deposit box contents.

Here are some fast facts from the office of the State Treasurer:

• About 1 in every 10 people have unclaimed property waiting for them.
• The state of Iowa is currently holding $460 million dollars in unclaimed property.
• Since the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt began in 1983, the program has returned more than $310 million to more than 585,000 people, businesses, and nonprofits.
• On average, it takes about three weeks for the state to reunite people with their lost assets after a claim is made.

State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald wants people to know the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt is credible: “In this day and age, you get all these emails every day from somebody in Africa who wants to send you $15 million dollars. People are suspicious, and rightfully so. But this is the state of Iowa and we’re legit.”

If you want to see if you or a relative is owed money, you can check the link here.

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