Finance Wanted.

By Russ D Johnson

Omaha steaks are likely the most well known treasure to come out of Nebraska in recent years, but there's something even juicier that NE residents will find is more interesting to them personally. As recently as 2007, Nebraska unclaimed money totaled more than $85 million, and counting. Despite the fact that the State Treasurer's Office holds quite a few "outreach" events to connect people with their lost assets, lack of education on the matter means that more money comes in than goes out to the rightful owners.

Living in a state with only roughly 1.7 million people, Nebraska residents have terrific odds of discovering that they are owed a share of the total unclaimed property being held by the State Treasurer. The only thing standing between the people and their money is a search and a claim, but before that can be done properly, the people need to know how to search or they could waste a lot of time on the wrong websites using incorrect search tactics.

The most important thing for Nebraska residents to remember, when searching for unclaimed funds, is that it's not a one search deal. This rule applies not only because many sites aren't offering reliable data, but mainly because the official data is updated constantly so searching one day without locating any money doesn't mean that searching another day won't turn up a pile of cash.

Among the most common types of assets that can become "unclaimed" in Nebraska are: savings accounts, checking accounts, health claim payments, dividends, telephone deposits, life insurance proceeds, vendor payments, wages, stocks, bonds, utility deposits, miscellaneous outstanding checks, safety deposit boxes, gift certificates. Each of these is considered unclaimed, and then handed over to the state, after a period of inactivity which varies from asset type to asset type, though most commonly these "dormancy periods" are between 1 and 5 years, with a few exceptions. With these widely varying dormancy periods, the state is constantly receiving new accounts, which means that a person could perform a search a day before the state obtains their cash, and the search would turn up nothing. But if the person were diligent and searched regularly, they would find a record of their cash the next time they searched.

The need to search often is important, not only because of the varying dormancy periods, but because the state can't update the unclaimed money list in real time. So even after monies have been handed over to the state, a person in the State Treasurer's Office must manually add the record to their system, which may not be done for days, weeks, or months. Searching once might never locate these assets, but searching regularly increases the odds of discovering the joys of turning missing money in to found money.

These tips will give you a jumpstart in the race for lost cash, but there are many more that you can learn by mimicking what experienced searchers do, to keep from falling in to traps beginners often do which wind up hindering their searches and keeping them from taking back money that is rightfully theirs. Learning from the experts can go a long way in helping you reunited with you money.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Nebraska unclaimed money and missing money across the country.