November 13, 2023 – The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office returned more than $18.9 million in missing money during October. The total includes more than $18 million in cash and interest and more than $900,000 in stock value. All told, 33,845 claims were paid.
“We help Illinois’ economy by putting money back in people’s pockets,” Treasurer Michael Frerichs said. “Our efforts to improve the efficiency of reuniting people with their missing money are paying off.”
Illinois’ missing money program — also known as I-CASH — is one of the state’s oldest consumer protection initiatives. The State Treasurer is tasked with safeguarding unclaimed property, such as the contents of overlooked safe deposit boxes, unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts and unused rebate cards. Illinois holds more than $5 billion in unclaimed property.
So far this year, the Treasurer’s Office has returned more than $220 million through more than 223,700 claims.
In recent months, the Treasurer’s Office has sent out letters to more than 140,000 people through the Enhanced Money Match program, which leverages data already collected by the state and crossmatches it with the treasurer’s unclaimed property database. When a matching name and mailing address is identified and confirmed, the unclaimed property owner will receive a letter from the Treasurer’s Office that describes the amount and source of the money. After one additional security step is concluded, a check simply is issued to the owner. All they have to do is watch for the mail.
Frerichs worked with state lawmakers to raise the limit on the amount of money that can be returned to $5,000. The total to be returned through the two rounds of Enhanced Money Match letters is about $76 million.
Frerichs also has added a Friends and Family “share” feature. When visitors to the I-CASH website come across the name of someone they know, they can select the “share” icon and provide the email address of their friend or relative. Frerichs’ office then will notify the individual by sending an email that mentions the missing money, along with the name of the friend or relative who spotted it. Then, that individual can start the process of retrieving it.
The Treasurer’s Office recommends that people check for missing money at least twice a year. You can check icash.illinoistreasurer.gov to see if missing money is waiting for you.
