Government Refunds

It is shocking the sheer number of ways that a government agency can end up with money that rightfully belongs to one of its citizens.

For example, let's say you are renting an apartment or house and you forget to get your deposit back after you leave. For whatever reason, it just completely slips your mind. If the landlord doesn't have a forwarding address for you, they have no way of returning your deposit to you. Under law, they cannot keep that deposit. They can hold it for a specified time, in the hope that you will contact them and provide an address to send your check, but if you fail to do that, the landlord is required to turn that deposit over to the local governing agency. Then, that agency is supposed to contact you and return your money. But they don't really try that hard. They would argue that their hands are tied concerning what all they are permitted to do to track you down and return your money.

That's just one example. Another example would be a relative dies without a will. Their property goes into probate. The probate court will attempt to locate the relatives, but again, in my humble opinion, they don't try hard enough. Everyone knows the length the government will go to when you owe them money. I believe they should go to equal lengths to return money that belongs to you. Sadly, they don't.

The sheer number of examples of how and when your money can be turned over to a government agency is shocking, and too long to list.

That's not the worst part. After a certain amount of time passes, without them being able to locate the rightful owner, they keep the money. You read that correctly. They keep the money. Under law, you completely forfeit all rights to the money and the government gets to keep the money. They don't have a lot of incentive to find you. The incentive is actually the opposite. If they can't find you, they get to keep your money.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sit well with me. So, I began creating a database of all the government points of contact for the various agencies which control these funds. I requested and received a list of funds held: the owner and the amount.

I then pass the owner information onto a research team which attempts to locate the owners. It is more difficult than you might imagine. A surprising percentage of the population leaves little to no Internet footprint. Every now and then we get lucky and find either the owner or their rightful heir. If you are reading this now, that probably means we have contacted you about money that you are owed.

We will help you get the money you are owed. Where possible, we will fill out as much of the paperwork as legally permitted, then send the paperwork to you. We provide detailed instructions on where to sign, and we even provide a stamped and addressed envelope. Just review the paperwork, sign it (assuming everything is accurate), stick it in the provided envelope, and drop it in the mail. After you receive your check, we ask that you pay us 15% of the money you receive. You pay us nothing up front. You only pay us only after the government pays you the money you are owed.

Each government jurisdiction has their own laws governing how long they must wait before claiming your money for themselves. The clock is ticking. Don't let the government keep your money.