(Part 1 of 2)

It's not a secret that the Rocky Mountains go straight through Wyoming, but there is an even more interesting mountain, one of more immediate interest to the less half of a million people living in the Equality State – a mountain of money! Currently, the State Treasury Office is holding in excess of $26 million in Wyoming unclaimed money, and waiting for the actual owners to step forward and take what technically already belongs to them.

The State Treasury web site lists the following as the most common types of property that can become "unclaimed": savings accounts, deposits, refunds, customer overpayments, insurance policies, endowments, and annuities, checking accounts, credit balances, uncashed dividends, moneys distributable from trusts, uncashed insurance claim payments, safe deposit box contents, stocks, money orders, traveler's checks. Each of those types of unclaimed money has its own dormancy period, which is the amount of years that must go by before they are considered abandoned and law requires that they be passed along to the state. These dormancy periods vary greatly, but are usually 5 years in WY.

(to be continued)

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Find your unclaimed money
Take 5 minutes to do a quick online check for funds you might have lost track of.

Unclaimed Money in Stocks: How to Track it Down
This week, I'm answering questions from readers, because there's an unclaimed money question that keeps coming up again and again. That tells me there's a need, so here goes. Here are two samples of the questions I've gotten:

Unclaimed money in Bryan County
DO YOU HAVE UNCLAIMED MONEY? Bryan residents who have unclaimed money or safe deposit box can find out in the newest database available through bryancountynow.com.