Lost Treasure: CO Treasury stores millions in unclaimed property. It’s now easier than ever to find out if it’s yours

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - For some, it’s $50 from an old refund. For others, it’s an old insurance policy worth hundreds of dollars. For a lucky few, it can be a long-lost inheritance, a collection of relics, worth thousands of dollars. And it’s all tucked away inside a vault inside the Denver capitol.  

It’s called unclaimed property. And it’s more common than you think. In fact, state treasurers, including Colorado’s Dave Young, estimate one in seven people have unclaimed property just waiting to be claimed. 

"About half our staff here at the Treasury works on this. It's really a big investigative process,” said Colorado Treasurer Dave Young. 

Inside his vault: diamonds, war medals, gold coins, silver bars, rare baseball card collections – most of it brought in from expired bank safety deposit boxes. 

"We had a $160,000 Tiffany necklace,” said Young. 

In some ways, it’s a modern-day treasure hunt -- a treasure that could pay for a tank of gas or, in some cases, a new house. And in 2024, it only takes a thirty-second search. 

Young is in charge of the Colorado website that runs the search to claim unclaimed property, Colorado.FindYourUnclaimedProperty.com. It’s a site that, Young acknowledges, doesn’t sound legitimate. But he says they’re working on getting a “.Gov” domain.  

In the meantime, Young, and other state treasurers, have partnered with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, to create a new, user-friendly site that searches 49 states at once. It’s called MissingMoney.com, and it’s perfect for anyone who has lived in multiple states and wants to do one search in one place.  

"In today's day and age where people are moving around so much, having an aggregated spot to search, nationwide, is more valuable than ever,” said Jeremy Dawson, the director of the NAUPA. 

The NAUPA estimates there is $30 billion in unclaimed property nationwide.  

"Sometimes it's larger amounts. There's life insurance. There's stock,” said Dawson. 

True Apodaca-Cobell works at the Colorado State Capitol. He heard about MissingMoney.com. Skeptical, he did a quick search and it paid off in a huge way, uncovering more than $9,000 from an old business account in Florida. 

"I didn't even realize that that money was still sitting there,” said True, saying that he too, thought it sounded like a scam until he performed a search. 

"It worked. It got us through some hard times during the pandemic, for sure,” he laughed. 

Unclaimed property can be anything from forgotten bank accounts, utility deposits, or overpayments from a doctor’s visit. It can also be settlement money or inheritance you didn’t even know was yours. The most common reason you don’t know about it? The wrong address was on file. So if you’ve moved and didn’t update everyone with your new address, you might want to do a quick search.  

It could just be a long-lost treasure you’ve been hoping for. 

Or it could at least pay for dinner. 

“It’s weird, but it’s true,” said True. 

"Everyone was skeptical ... Once I actually trusted that it was the real thing, and sent my information in, it was pretty quick. [It arrived] actually within a week." 

Searching for unclaimed property applies to businesses and non-profits as well. Also, Young says there is a lot of money sitting in his treasury from unclaimed TABOR refunds. Also, check often if you’re in the military and move often. 

Unclaimed.org is another, federally-run resource, where you can check for unclaimed property on a regular basis.