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CALIFORNIA

Unclaimed money in California, and how to ask for it.

California will never phone you first. Anyone who does, and who asks for a fee to 'release' your money, is not the state.

Search California — free, official

Goes straight to the California State Controller's Office. We take no cut and ask for nothing.

The whole thing, in three steps

  1. Search California itself. The California State Controller's Office runs the official search at https://sco.ca.gov/upd_msg.html. Your name is enough to start.
  2. Then search every other state you have ever lived in. This is the step most people skip. Money is handed to the state of the last address a company had on file for you, so it sits in a state you moved away from years ago. The list of all fifty official offices is at unclaimed.org.
  3. Then the eight federal searches. Savings bonds, pensions from closed plans, failed banks, closed credit unions, undelivered tax refunds, FHA refunds, veterans' insurance and money held by federal courts. They are all on our front page, each with its official link.
Two things worth knowing before you start

The state will almost never contact you first. If somebody phones and offers to "release" your money for a fee, that is not California — that is a finder, and you do not need one.

And the honest number: most people find tens of dollars, not thousands. It is still your money, and the search costs nothing but twelve minutes.

Every state we have written up

MichiganTexasFloridaNew YorkNew JerseyPennsylvaniaMassachusettsOhioGeorgia

Not here yet? The official office for all fifty states is listed at unclaimed.org.

A new list of open refunds, every Tuesday

Courts and regulators order refunds every week and hardly anybody collects them. We publish the open ones with the official link beside each, and it costs nothing to look.

See this week's list