Montana Holding $90 Million in Unclaimed Assets, Looking For Owners

The Montana Department of Revenue is holding onto a lot of unclaimed property obtained from safe-deposit boxes and other sources, and they’re trying to find the rightful owners.

According to DOR spokesperson Mary Ann Dunwell more than five million dollars was added to the pile of unclaimed money just last year.

"Last fiscal year we brought in $10 million from businesses or other holder's unclaimed property, but we returned only $4.2 million," Dunwell said. "We still have half of what we brought in last year, but that's not much compared to the total. Are you sitting down? The total is close to $90 million."

Dunwell says the money is kept in the state’s general fund and includes a variety of odd and sometimes valuable items.

"It ranges from the contents of safety deposite boxes, which can be everything from a peanut butter wrapper, seriously, to gold nuggets," Dunwell said. "We had a safety deposit box with a bunch of gold nuggets and a mineral claim and we were able to track down the owner."

Just this year, an Eastern Montana man discovered the state was holding onto $80,000 that was his. The Montana Department of Revenue has a list of names of people that have unclaimed assets, to find out more, click the link below...