This summer will bring $45 million in cash to a record-breaking 600,000 people who will receive money they didn’t even know they had from the state’s missing money program, and the only thing they must do is cash the check, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said today.
The checks are part of the latest round of the Enhanced Money Match program – which takes the “claim” out of unclaimed property. Treasurer Frerichs’ office helps get the check in the mail by leveraging technology to return money to individuals, through I-CASH, the state’s unclaimed property initiative.
Most of the matched claims in this Enhanced Money Match round equal $50 or less, though some people can have multiple claims and their checks will amount to much more.
The volume of “claim-less” checks is unprecedented. Frerichs’ office founded the Enhanced Money Match program in 2018 and has since returned more than $130 million to more than 870,000 people. This summer’s total of nearly 600,000 checks makes it the largest Money Match ever performed in the nation.
Frerichs’ office began mailing notification letters at the end of June. The checks soon follow and will hit mailboxes all summer long.
The Enhanced Money Match Program leverages data already collected by partnering state agencies and cross matches it with the State Treasurer’s unclaimed property database. The Treasurer’s Office matches names and mailing addresses, confirms those, and then sends a letter to the unclaimed property owner that describes the amount and source of the money.
Enhanced Money Match focuses only on straightforward claims that involve cash owed to a single person. It doesn’t cover other types of claims, such as those involving cash owned by multiple parties, shares of stocks and bonds, escrow accounts, and the contents of bank safe deposit boxes.
To see if you have missing money, check the online database at www.illinoistreasurer.gov/ICASH.
