Treasury Talk PODCAST

Unclaimed Property: A Friendly Rivalry to Reunite Lost Assets

• Treasury Talk with MI Treasurer Rachael Eubanks • Season 3 • Episode 9

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Did you know you might have money waiting for you—and not even know it?

In this episode, we’re joined by Terry Stanton to explore Michigan’s Unclaimed Property program. Learn how the program works, discover recent improvements driven by human-centered web design, and hear about the friendly rivalry heating up between Michigan and Ohio this November as both states compete to return forgotten funds to their residents.

This fiscal year, Michigan is aiming to return $175 million—and we’re calling on you to help us reach that goal, defend our title as reigning champs, and once again beat our neighbors to the south. Search for your forgotten funds today at michigan.gov/UnclaimedProperty.

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Introduction:

Welcome to Treasury Talk, a podcast featuring timely tips and information for Michigan taxpayers, hosted by State Treasurer Rachel Eubanks. Listen for takeaways from our subject matter experts that will support you, your family, and your business.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Hello to our listeners. I'm Rachel Eubanks and this is Treasury Talk. Did you know you might have money waiting for you and not even know it? Unclaimed property is like a statewide lost and found box. Instead of umbrellas or jackets, it's money, stocks, or even safe deposit box contents that have been forgotten or left behind. Today we're diving into Michigan's Unclaimed Property Program with a frequent guest, Terry Stanton. He's going to talk about some of the latest developments in the Unclaimed Property Program, including a friendly competition with our neighbors to the south, the Ohio Department of Commerce, to reunite you and your business with your property. Stick around. You might just discover you or somebody you know has money waiting to be claimed.

Terry Stanton:

Thank you, Treasurer, for having me here. It's always a pleasure. And we like nothing more than talking about unclaimed property.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Excellent, excellent. So, Terry, before we get started, let's tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. What is your treasury story and how did you come to work for the Michigan Department of Treasury? And how did you get to start working with unclaimed property?

Terry Stanton:

It's a sordid tale. I actually like to say that I kind of had three different careers. I was in television for almost 20 years, where I anchor reporter uh worked in in Flint, uh in Milwaukee, and here in Lansing. And after those almost 20 years, uh it just got to be a bit much, three-year contracts, yada, yada, yada. And so I was looking for something else, something in public relations promotions. Um, and lo and behold, a position was open at Treasury in the last year and a half of the Engler administration. So I took the job as press secretary, which evolved into director of communications over time, and I did that for 15 years. Um, and then uh through various and sundry events in my life, working in that capacity wasn't a lot of fun anymore. So I needed something new. And the opening was at Unclaimed Property, and I asked uh Nick Curry at the time if if uh I could take a shot at that. And he said, What are you doing? That's crazy boring. Don't you need this exciting stuff? And I said, No, I need boring stuff to do again. It's been anything but unclaimed property is a great uh program that we have at Treasury, and I'm very proud of the work that we do.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Yeah, well, that's a great uh background for why you have the perfect podcast voice and what a tremendous career you've had here with Treasury. So, can you explain a little to our listeners about how the unclaimed property works? This might be one of the things when I'm out talking to people that they have the least understanding about what we do. And what are the basics for those who are hearing about this program for the first time?

Terry Stanton:

Right. Well, unclaimed property is property that belongs to someone, actually, an individual or a business or a local unit of government, but they no longer are aware of it or they don't have possession of it because it's in the possession of a holder, which can be a local government, a business entity, a university, whatever the case might be, any entities that have payroll, that pay invoices, that have vendors. And so payments get lost, accounts get lost, credit balances get lost over time. And under our act, um, those properties, once they are, they've gone dormant, which typically is a three-year period where the holder has no contact with the owner, then the holder is to report those properties to us. And we take them into our custody, they're claimable in perpetuity, and then we work to reunite them over the next year to 30 years with the rightful owner of the owner's heirs. So it's a very rewarding job. And our staff love to hear the stories from claimants about thank you for that $1,300. I was able to get eye surgery, or I was able to stay in my house. So those are the type of stories that are terrific and keep us keep us going.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Yeah, two little anecdotal stories about the unclaimed property experience. I've been out presenting to groups and one time along with a, let's just say, a fellow member of the governor's cabinet to protect the innocent. And this person went back and found a security deposit for an apartment that they had in college. You'd think, how on earth could I forget about that money? But it's very, very easy to do. And anytime I'm out speaking, we always hear stories about somebody finding, you know, substantial amounts of money. So this is real money that folks should be, you know, trying to contact us to correct claim.

Terry Stanton:

A lot of times we even with bank accounts, someone has a bank account that they opened 10 years ago, and maybe it doesn't have a huge amount of money, but it's just kind of a set aside. And if there's no activity on that account for three years, then the bank reaches out to the individual. And we all get so much junk mail that I think a lot of people take that due diligence letter and kind of round file it, like, oh, it's just more junk mail, and they don't respond to the bank, but then the bank reports it to us. So we do hear from people saying, Why did you take my account? And we have to say, Well, we didn't take it, it's under law, reported to us, but we're happy to get it back to you.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Absolutely. And this is a substantial impact when you sort of add it all up together. So, how much money has actually been returned to Michiganders in recent years?

Terry Stanton:

Yeah, last fiscal year was just ended, we returned 163.6 million, which was a program record, and it topped our record from last year by 13 million. So we're very proud of that. And over the last five fiscal years, we're over $700 million that's gone back to claim it. So um we like to pat ourselves on the back for that, but we don't rest on our laurels because our goal for this fiscal year is 175 million. So we're trying to uptick it every year. And we hope that that people will go to unclaimed property.michigan.gov and search their name. Our search engine is very easy to use. Um, and we like to think that our claims process is is fairly easy for most folks.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Absolutely. And having tuned into that website, I can uh attest that very, very easy to use. Thank you. So let's get back to the competition. Let's get back to this friendly unclaimed property challenge that we're having with our neighbors to the south. There's obviously a big football game coming up in a couple of weeks. So why are we doing it this year and why is this so special?

Terry Stanton:

In 2023, um, the state of Ohio, their unclaimed property operation, said, Hey, would you guys like to have a challenge based on the football games that are going on in November between Michigan State and Ohio State and Michigan and Ohio State? And we said, Yeah, why not? Let's have some fun with that. So I went down to Columbus and we did some promotional videos and we had fun. Um, and so the contest was from November 1 till November 30 for which state could have the most searches on their website for property. Um, we won, of course, as did Michigan over Ohio State that year. Um, this year, uh last year they didn't, they couldn't do it. They were doing an implementation of a system, but they asked again if they could have a shot at us in 25, and we said, bring it. Um, the uh unfortunate thing is Michigan State doesn't play Ohio State this year, so it's really truly a Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. Um, but we're in the process of doing our own videos. I again went down to Columbus and had some fun with the folks in Ohio. So we'll be promoting uh this competition and hopefully um Michigan residents will back us on that and jump out of the huddle and hit the gridiron and search on our site.

Treasurer Eubanks:

All right, that's right, listeners. You can help Michigan beat Ohio by checking for Unclaimed Property and encouraging your friends and family to do the same. Every claim counts in this contest. So if you're curious already, feel free to pause this podcast and check Michigan.gov slash unclaimed property, and we'll still be here when you get back. So, Terry, I understand that the Unclaimed Property website has undergone some changes to help individuals be reunited with their property. Can you tell me about some of those updates that you've made, things that you've done to make it more user-friendly?

Terry Stanton:

Absolutely. And I want to thank you for some of that because it was a meeting that we had with you and some others in the executive office that where we looked at the site, we were explaining to you what we do and how we do it, and you had some questions about why certain things were the way they were. Um, so as a result of that, we did a human-centered design internally here in Treasury, and they had, I believe it was 14 recommendations for our website. We accepted 11 of the 14. Um, the other three we couldn't do because it would break something else in our system. So we just couldn't do that. But it was a it was a better look and feel, it was cleaner. Um, we improved the video uh where the video would break up in in different places. It was a lot less busy and easier to understand. So we replaced some verbiage and we think we really cleaned it up. If you look at the version today as opposed to before the transition, it's very clean, it's very easy uh to use. So we hope that folks are finding that and the feedback from uh just about everybody we've talked to about that or heard from about that is very positive.

Treasurer Eubanks:

And you added some translations as well, didn't you?

Terry Stanton:

We did recently just do a translation. Um, Kelmar, the vendor that works with us that hosts our system, had made available um a program where you can do up to 10 languages. So we now have that available. Um we took that we looked at the top 10 non-English languages in the state of Michigan and we implemented those on our site. So it's not for the forms. If someone were to print off the form, it doesn't change that, but it certainly makes the search and the information that they get back from the search in their own native language, if you will.

Treasurer Eubanks:

Well, I appreciate your attention to continuous improvement in figuring out more ways to meet more Michigander. So that's been an outstanding effort. So, Terry, thank you so much for joining me today to share your treasury story and also to talk about Michigan's unclaimed property program.

Terry Stanton:

Absolutely a pleasure every time. Thanks, Treasurer.

Treasurer Eubanks:

So, whether it's a forgotten paycheck, an old bank account, or a retirement check, there's a good chance something is waiting for you. I encourage all of our listeners to once again go to Michigan.gov/ unclaimed property to file their unclaimed property claim and help the state of Michigan win in the high stakes contest against the state of Ohio. Thank you for listening to Treasury Talk and go blue.

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Rachael Eubanks

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