Would you like to find some lost treasure? Could your church use some unexpected money?

Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all have “Unclaimed Property” programs run through the Office of the Treasurer.

Unclaimed property consists of unclaimed financial assets such as checking and savings accounts, unpaid wages, securities, uncashed dividends, life insurance policies, uncashed checks, safe deposit boxes, etc. that are without activity for a certain period of time.

All three states have databases that make it easy to find out whether your church has unclaimed property. And the odds are pretty good that your church might!  In the Massachusetts database, there are 329 records for businesses that have the word "Congregational" in them!  The Connecticut database returns nearly 50 results, and there are another 10 in Rhode Island. 

To check whether your church is on one of these lists, simply go to your state’s website shown below and follow the instructions and/or click on the appropriate box. Each website has an FAQ section as well as instructions for how to search for property and how to make a claim.

There is no guarantee that your church has unclaimed financial assets, nor that it will be a large amount if there are some. However, the ease with which a search can be done makes this a relative no-brainer as there is nothing to lose but a few minutes of time. And who knows? You might just find some real treasure, and we can all use some of that!
 
CT:  https://portal.ct.gov/OTT/Unclaimed-Property/Overview
 
MA: https://www.findmassmoney.com/
 
RI: https://findrimoney.com/




Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash