About 40,000 Pennsylvanians to receive unclaimed property letters this week

More than 40,000 Pennsylvanians are set to receive letters this week indicating they’ll be receiving money because of unclaimed property, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced Wednesday.

Unclaimed property can include dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, forgotten stocks, insurance policies, tangible property like the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes and more. In most cases, state law requires businesses to report unclaimed property to the treasury after three years of dormancy.

The Pennsylvania Money Match program, which was signed into law last year, returns unclaimed property automatically to single-owner properties valued up to $500. At least 14 other states have successfully implemented similar programs.

“I’m thrilled to get this money back to hardworking Pennsylvanians without requiring them to file a claim or submit any paperwork at all,” Garrity said.

The program doesn’t include claims for properties valued above $500 or those that have multiple owners or other complexities — as those cases still will need to file a claim and provide supporting documentation, the treasury said.

This is the second batch of letters being sent through the program.

In March, about 7,500 checks totaling $1.8 million in returned unclaimed property were sent out. This latest batch includes more than $8 million worth of unclaimed property, the treasury reported.

Money Match letters and checks will continue to be sent quarterly.

Unclaimed property will arrive in the form of a check from the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, according to Garrity.

Pennsylvania residents can search online using their name to see if they have unclaimed property available. More than 1 in 10 Pennsylvanians is owed some of the $5 billion in unclaimed property being safeguarded by the treasury. The average value of a claim is more than $1,000.