It’s Your Money. Come And Get It

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Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's "unclaimed funds" web page

September 19, 2024

By Barrett Seaman–

There are plenty of schemes out there that offer free—or at least easy—money. One should always check, as Hastings resident Vivienne Heston did when she received a letter from County Legislator David Imamura last year, telling her that an unspecified amount of her money was being held in the state’s coffers. Was this another scam? Or legit?

Turns out it was the real thing. While she missed a county-sponsored workshop held at the Hastings Public Library to assist residents in claiming money that had their name on it, she managed to successfully file a claim on the New York State Comptroller’s web site. “It was very easy to type in my name and submit a claim,” recalls Heston. “The refund came by check several weeks later.”

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Heston’s found money (around $200) wasn’t life-changing, like a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket, but it wasn’t peanuts either. Nor was the $38 and change in the name of Anna Cooper’s late husband. An Irvington resident, Cooper did make it down last December to the Hastings Public Library where Imamura and staffers from the county helped her log onto the unclaimed funds link of Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s web site. As she was leaving the building, she saw State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins—whose presence was a pretty good sign that this was an authorized operation. Weeks went by but she eventually got the check in the mail, reflecting what she described as “some kind of health insurance refund.”

For details on that December 2023 workshop, check out The Hudson Independent’s article: https://thehudsonindependent.com/officials-hold-workshop-on-how-to-reclaim-lost-funds/.

The scene at the December 2023 workshop at the Hastings Public Library (photo by Jeff Wilson for The Hudson Independent)

According to the State Comptroller’s web site, New York State is sitting on some $19 billion in “lost money.” The retrieval process, according to the site, has so far in 2024 returned $364,805,622. Part of that is the result of an outreach campaign championed by Legislator Imamura, who says the state is still sitting on $480 million owed to Westchester County residents alone. Imamura’s campaign to send letters to residents like Heston and Cooper in his Greenburgh district proved so successful that all 17 Westchester legislators as well as County Executive George Latimer decided to adopt it. “Westchester County Government is here to serve the people,” said Latimer. “I would like to thank New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, as well as my colleagues at the Board of Legislators, who are helping thousands of Westchester County families recover money that is owed to them.”

Last week, some 65,000 county residents got letters telling them that their names were on DiNapoli’s list. The letters don’t specify how much money each recipient is due; that number is revealed only after the applicant proves his or her identity or, in the case of retrieving money owed to a deceased relative, supplies a copy of the death certificate, proof of residency or power of attorney.

More often than not, the amounts are modest, but one resident so far hit a jackpot of more than $100,000. The monies are typically found in dormant accounts held by banks, corporations, insurance companies or the courts. They might be uncashed paychecks or expense reimbursements. Some of the money is taxable; some is not. Unless and until their rightful owners are identified, they are frozen outside the state’s coffers and thus fiscally useless.

Check out the site: https://www.osc.ny.gov/unclaimed-funds. If you get stuck, there will be more workshops to help residents retrieve their money. Two were on September 19th: a morning session at the Somers library and an afternoon session at Cortlandt Town Hall.

There will be others in October:

Thursday, the 10^th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Mamaroneck Town Hall;

Wednesday, the 16^th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Grinton I. Will Library, 1500 Central Park Avenue, Yonkers.

On Thursday, November 7, one will be held at Greenburgh’s Theodore D. Young Community Center.

On Tuesday, November 12, there will be a session at the White Plains Public Library.

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