PICKENS COUNTY — You’ve heard of it before, right? Millions of dollars in unclaimed money just sitting there — waiting for you to claim it.
Sounds slightly “scam-ish,” certainly too good to be true, and — at the very least — surely (if legit) must require a ton of paperwork as well as a giant machete to cut through the red tape in order to get it. Not worth the effort, right?
Well, not so fast …
Because according to S.C. State Treasurer Curtis Loftis, none of that is true.
“There is around $650 million in unclaimed money in South Carolina alone,” said Loftis during a recent interview with The Sentinel-Progress. “That’s not nationwide, that’s here.”
Loftis said the money comes from a variety of sources and much of it, because it sits in perpetuity, has been there a long time.
“Maybe Grandma bought some stocks back in the day and never told anyone,” he explained. “Maybe Dad had a life insurance policy through work that Mom didn’t know about. You know, especially back then, husbands didn’t always tell their wives how much money they had — in some cases it was more of a ‘I work and you stay at home with the 18 kids. Oh, and here’s a dollar to buy yourself something.’ Because of situations like that, you’ll have savings bonds, bank accounts, insurance policies — whatever — just sitting there. For years.”
It’s also more common than you think. Loftis said if he were to ask an auditorium full of people to check for unclaimed money, about a third of them would find it.
“You know, sometimes it’s not much,” he said. “Sometimes it’s life-changing. You find a couple of grand for a struggling mom — that can be the difference in getting a car fixed, or having food in the fridge.”
Loftis said the largest amount paid out was $900,000.
“It’s not the amounts through, this is your money,” he said. “Whether it’s $5 or $500 or $5,000, why not claim it?”
During his visit to Pickens County, the Treasurer made a couple of surprise visits to present some local businesses and non-profits with their unclaimed money.
Friends of the Village Branch Library in Pickens were shocked to discover they had over $30,000.
“I couldn’t believe they didn’t know!” laughed Loftis. “That was great, I thought they were going to fall over.” The office also found $315 for Foothills Playhouse in Easley smaller amounts for United Way of Pickens County and the domestic violence shelter, MARY’S House.
As a final surprise, Loftis then presented The Sentinel-Progress with a $1,460 check — money belonging to the paper that we were unaware of.
Oops.
To see if you have unclaimed money, visit the S.C. Treasurer’s Office website at https://www.treasurer.sc.gov/what-we-do/for-citizens/unclaimed-property-program/
