Does Florida owe you money? Check how to find, claim $4.5 billion held by state

Business admin September 17, 2026 0 Comments

Does Florida owe you money? Check how to find, claim $4.5 billion held by state

Florida has about $4.5 billion in outstanding unclaimed property — and some of it could be yours.

That’s more than twice the amount in unclaimed coffers compared to 2024.

About four million Floridians, or 1 in 5 of Florida’s 23 million people citing recent U.S. Census numbers, have property waiting to be claimed. Some of these people have more than one potential claim given that there are 13 million claimable accounts, according to Coral Gables-based Reclaim.org, a nationwide resource that helps people find and reclaim unclaimed financial assets that are dormant across the United States.

The average return per Floridian is about $1,000, Ricky Maldonado, CEO for Reclaim, told the Miami Herald in an email.

“You’d be surprised. It could be stock that a family member held in a company for years, unclaimed life insurance proceeds, royalties, lawsuit settlements, uncollected salary — you name it,” Maldonado said.

Where does this bounty come from?

State treasury offices collect millions of dollars in unclaimed property. People may not have cashed or collected payroll checks, received money from their tax returns, or collected insurance proceeds. Still others may not have gathered the contents of their safe deposit boxes and bank accounts before closing them.

Or maybe they moved out of state and never responded to notices from their bank about branch closings, said Kathya Castillo, a banking senior at City National Bank in North Kendall.

Most of the money is from dormant accounts in financial institutions, insurance and utility companies, and securities and trust holdings, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.

Unclaimed property can also include valuables including watches, jewelry, coins, currency, stamps, historical items and miscellaneous stuff from abandoned safe deposit boxes. The Department of Financial Services periodically holds unclaimed property auctions, where abandoned safe deposit box contents are auctioned by the Division of Unclaimed Property, the state said.

According to Florida law, unclaimed assets must be held by business or government entities for a set period of time, usually five years. If the holder is unable to locate, re-establish contact with the owner and return the asset, it is reported and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property.

How can you collect money or property from Florida?

Check the Florida Division of Unclaimed Property website at FLTreasureHunt.gov to see if anything might be yours or a family member’s. There’s no charge to search or file a claim on the site.

The abandoned property Claim Your Cash Florida portal is at https://portal.claimyourcashfl.gov/ClaimSearch

Type your name or business name in the green search field and if any property comes up with your name attached, click on the results that match your search and click an Add button to place it in a virtual cart —much like purchasing on Amazon. Follow the simple instructions to file a claim for that property.

How do you prove the money is yours?

You’ll be asked to enter contact information and some identifying details like a Social Security number and your birthdate. You can file a claim for a deceased person’s property if you are the heir to their estate.

You will then receive an email receipt. Print it out and follow the instructions, which will include filling out the form and providing the requested documentation to prove your identity. This may include a photocopy of a driver’s license, a piece of mailing such as a utility bill or some other paperwork that shows the names and matching address of the lost property owner or owners. If one of the owners is deceased, an original death certificate will be requested.

How long does it take to receive money?

The Department of Financial Services has 90 days once it receives your complete claim package to make a determination.

Florida’s newly enacted Department of Financial Services’ Senate Bill 1452 was signed in June 2026 and is intended to make more of that money visible to residents. The law strengthens notification requirements, adds certified-mail notices for property worth $1,000 or more and requires financial property valued at $10 or more to be listed on the state’s searchable website. But the resulting action doesn’t automatically return money or property that isn’t claimed.

One in seven Americans have unclaimed money in their name, Reclaim’s Maldonado said.

Leave it on the table?

“A lot of Americans are struggling right now. There’s economic instability, job insecurity, fear about AI and what the future holds. There is constantly unclaimed money becoming available for folks, and the sooner you claim that money, the sooner you can put it to work instead of having it sit in the hands of state government,” Maldonado said.

Florida has no deadline for people or their heirs to claim their money, Maldonado said. Physical goods, however, may eventually be auctioned, but the proceeds would be claimable.

If you have a bank account you haven’t touched in years and it meets the legal requirements for being considered dormant, the bank has to report and transfer that money to the state so you can reclaim it there.

Physical items may eventually be auctioned at periodic live auction events. These auctions aren’t conducted online. The proceeds remain claimable. To find out when a Florida auction will be held, visit: https://portal.claimyourcashfl.gov/Auction.jsp.