NY should make it easier to get unclaimed funds

New York State is holding on to hundreds of millions of dollars of its residents' money.

It's time for state officials to find ways to give more of it back.

Unclaimed funds come from a variety of sources. Perhaps there's a gift card you never used, or a bank account you had forgotten about, or an insurance payout you never cashed. New York companies are required to turn those funds over to the state comptroller's office which, in turn, is supposed to try to get the money back to the rightful recipient.

Too often, however, it just sits there, unclaimed, eventually ending up in the state's coffers. Even then, it still belongs to you — and you can claim it anytime. For now, the state relies on its residents to do the asking, to search for funds, fill out any paperwork and prove they are who they say they are before receiving a check in the mail. 

The amount of unclaimed funds belonging to Long Islanders is staggering. In Nassau County, there are 757,250 accounts containing $510,240,570. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, 24,474 accounts worth $23,554,716 were paid. In Suffolk, there are 706,636 accounts totaling $377,393,412. Just 21,445 accounts were paid in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, worth $17,706,928.

State officials note that those payouts mark significant progress; the comptroller's office has recently tried to increase its outreach efforts to those who are owed money, sending letters to encourage residents to claim their funds, while also doing more to collect the money from the companies themselves. But it can do more. Other states, including Wisconsin, Illinois and Oregon, take a more aggressive approach to matching unclaimed funds to their recipients — without making their residents jump through hoops.

New York officials are quick to suggest that such a process could be more difficult here, due to the system's complexity and the state's much bigger population. Perhaps. But while Wisconsin's return rate is 92% and Illinois' is 62%, New York's return rate currently sits at 41%. That's not good enough. So, it's worth trying to adapt some of the best practices in other states. The comptroller's office also is in the middle of a computer system upgrade, officials said. That could help, though further technological improvements still may be necessary. It's worth looking into integrating the unclaimed funds system with other databases in New York, as long as privacy concerns are addressed appropriately.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and his staff shouldn't rest on the notion that they're doing the best they can. But claimants shouldn't wait to be contacted. They should start their searches now, looking for themselves, or for relatives and friends — including those who might not know how to navigate the system. You can search for unclaimed funds here: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/unclaimed-funds or call 1-800-221-9311.