The Illinois State Treasurer's Office is holding over $5 billion in unclaimed funds for Illinoisans. The Illinois Treasurer holds these lost funds until they are claimed by either the original owner, heirs, or legal representatives. The Illinois Treasurer is legally required to get the property to the rightful owners no matter how long it takes for them to come forward.
Since 2015, the Treasurer’s Office has returned over $1.5 billion in assets (cash and value of returned shares).
Unclaimed property consists of accounts and other financial instruments, usually intangible, being held at corporations, financial institutions, courts, or life insurance companies, that have gone dormant. Common types of unclaimed property include unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts, uncashed stocks, and unused rebate cards.
The Office of the Illinois Treasurer returned a record-breaking $282 million in fiscal year 2022, the seventh consecutive year in which we set a record to get Illinois residents what is owed to them.
The Office of the Illinois Treasurer championed legislation (HB 1808) that became law creating the Money Match program. Money Match uses existing state records and technology to automatically return lost money to qualifying Illinois residents without the need to gather paperwork or file a claim.
The first Money March initiative, launched in September 2018, returned an estimated $12 million to 63,000 Illinois residents who were the sole owners of unclaimed cash valued between $50 and $2,000.
