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unclaimed savings bonds
According to the Treasury more than $15 billion savings bonds are now unclaimed and have stopped earning interest. The record-keeping office of the U.S. Treasury department is a great resource in locating your lost savings bonds which are still earning interest. The Treasury Department requires very basic information like Date of Issue and Social Security Number, to replace or reissue your bond. According to the law, there is no statute of limitations on claiming the savings bonds and the money can be claimed even after an indefinite period of time and the Treasury department is bound to respond to a claim.

Unclaimed Pension Funds

It is generally agreed that the unclaimed pension funds have the lowest volume and only about 32,000 people might have unclaimed pension money lying in the various state treasuries. As of last estimate, about $135 million of unclaimed pension funds are lying with the states. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federal pension insurance program, takes over the pension program if a company goes out of business. PBGC tries to locate the owners of abandoned pension funds. If you or your relatives might have a pension which is still unclaimed, then it can be tracked down at PBGC at search.pbgc.gov/mp/. There, you can type in your name and company in a search tool.

Contrary to the common belief, no federal agency or the employee of the U.S federal government will help you locate your unclaimed funds. Every state and state department handle the collection and reporting of the unclaimed money according to their own rules. According to the Treasury department - "There is no government-wide, centralized information service or database from which information on unclaimed government assets may be obtained. Each individual Federal agency maintains its own records and would need to research and release that data on a case-by-case basis."

There are many private and state accredited search agencies which assist you in locating unclaimed funds. Choice of a search agency should be dependent upon the reputation and governmental accreditation. Since the federal and state governments have all their information online, the search process is pretty simple and can be performed individually.