Hot money summer: Tennessee Treasury wants to reunite you with your long lost dollars

Ever wonder what happens to paychecks, bank accounts and refunds that get lost or never delivered to the owner? In Tennessee, it’s likely turned over to the state Treasury Department’s Unclaimed Property Division. 

Currently, the department has millions of dollars in unclaimed property ranging from money to military medals. So, they’re on the road this summer, visiting fairs and festivals, in an effort to try and reunite residents with their money. 

Eva Clarke knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end. A few months ago, she got a letter in the mail saying she had $346 waiting to be claimed. She was skeptical, but went online to ClaimItTN.gov and put in her information.  

“My reaction was ‘oh my gosh, it’s not a scam’,” Clarke said. 

After anxiously waiting for the check to arrive, she got her money. 

Clarke immediately looked up her friends on the website and told them about money listed under their names. 

“It was kind of fun to be the bearer of good news, and be able to tell people like, ‘Hey, I had $346 sitting there and I looked your name up and you’ve got money’,” she said. 

According to Shelli King, the director of communication at the Tennessee Department of Treasury, it’s common for people to not know about the program. 

“The first thing people would say is, ‘I’m not missing any land’,” King says . “So we always have to explain to them it is not land. In this instance, property is something that belongs to you, and it’s predominantly money.”  

Over the past year, the division paid more than 168,000 claims, returning more than $125 million to the owners, ranging from just a few bucks to thousands of dollars in unclaimed money. Sometimes, the claims are for property like military medals or safe deposit boxes. 

“Sometimes they don’t have anything. Sometimes, we’ve had people with a couple thousand dollars they didn’t know they had,” King said.   

The Unclaimed Property booth will appear at festivals until December, with the hope that residents can claim what’s rightfully theirs. Click here for a complete list of stops for the Unclaimed Property Booth this summer.  

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the division received more than 168,000 claims. The division has paid more than 168,000 claims.