Reply #5: rather than paying any money, go directly to your state's unclaimed

[ima_sinnic]

property website and do a search of your name and relative's names. If you have lived in more than one state, try all of them. I worked briefly for one of these "middlemen"--they are contracted by the state to connect with the people who are owed money--people who have left without picking up a paycheck, or have a leftover pension plan, bank acccount or stocks, stuff like that--I guess the states are required by law to make a good-faith effort to return the money but of course they don't have the staff or the time to play detective.

My job was to go through the list that was provided by the state (I believe it is updated daily) and search people's names on this industrial-strength database he was privy to, listing all known addresses with dates, birthdate, SS number, then sending an official letter to the best-guess address asking the person to call to get assistance getting their property. The addresses were woefully wrong most of the time--I looked up my husband's name out of curiosity, they had an address listed that we occupied for one month more than 10 years ago. Some people appeared to have lived at one address for their entire lives, yet the letter would come back "unknown."