Unclaimed money

91 official government search portals, reviewed Aug 5, 2026. This sends you to the government’s own search, never to an intermediary.

Before you pay anyone a penny

Nobody legitimate charges you to find your own money.

Searching for and claiming unclaimed property is always free on the official government site, and you never need to pay anyone a percentage to get your own money back. Companies that write to you offering to "recover" funds for a fee are finders; most US states cap what a finder may charge and several make the contract unenforceable if it is signed too soon after the property is reported. If someone has contacted you about money you did not know you had, search the official site below first — the money is already yours and the search costs nothing.

The search is free
Every portal listed here searches for nothing, on the government’s own site. There is no premium tier and no paid version of the same database.
Finder fees are capped or void
Most US states cap what an asset-recovery firm may charge, and several make the contract unenforceable if it is signed too soon after the property was reported.
A letter is not proof
If a company wrote to you about money you did not know you had, they read a public database. Search the official site below first — the money is already yours.

Where to search

Search everywhere you have lived or worked, not only where you are now. Property with no known owner address escheats to the holder’s state, which is why so much American unclaimed property sits in Delaware.

Where have you lived, worked or held an account?

Search every place you have ever lived, not just where you are now. Property is escheated by the holder’s state, which is often not yours.

2 portals for India, including the national programmes that also hold money for people in that jurisdiction.

OfficialFree to search
Reserve Bank of India — UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits Gateway to Access Information)
Open the official search
Cost to searchFree
Entry reviewedAug 5, 2026
What you will be asked for
PAN or Aadhaar
Mobile number registered for OTP verification
Account details or the name as held by the bank
Worth knowing
A centralised search across participating banks for deposits inactive for ten years, which are transferred to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness Fund. The claim itself is then made to the bank, not to the RBI.
OfficialFree to search
Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority — unclaimed shares and dividends
Open the official search
Cost to searchFree
Typical time to payment180 days
Notarised affidavitBudget for a notary, and for an apostille if you are claiming from abroad.Always required
Entry reviewedAug 5, 2026
What you will be asked for
Form IEPF-5 filed online
Indemnity bond on stamp paper
Advance receipt
Original share certificates or the demat transaction statement
Worth knowing
Shares and dividends unclaimed for seven consecutive years transfer to the IEPF. Recovery is genuinely onerous — a notarised indemnity bond and a physical filing through the company are required — which is exactly why a large fee-charging industry has grown around it. The official process is still free of any percentage fee.

Every portal carried

91 registers. Where a country runs no central register it is listed saying so — Germany, Japan and Hong Kong hold dormant money at the bank that has it, with no national search to run.

United States — states and DC51

United States — federal programmes10

Africa2

Asia5

Europe12

Latin America1

Banco Central do Brasil — Sistema de Valores a Receber (SVR)BR

North America4

Oceania6

Once you have found something

Filing is free and you do it yourself: expect photo ID, the tax or national identity number on the record, and something linking you to the address it was reported under. The one hard deadline here is American — an unclaimed IRS refund expires three years after the return was due. State unclaimed property is usually held indefinitely.

Work through a claim Track one you have filed

The regimes behind this category

Dataset reviewed Aug 5, 2026

Links go to the administering body’s own domain. If one does not resolve, find the programme through the state or national government’s own site rather than through a search engine — finder services rank highly for exactly these terms.