State Treasurer Michael Frerichs Will Return a Record Number of Checks to Illinoisans
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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 first thing we tell people, is this – the money belongs to you, the check is real, and this is not a scam,” Treasurer Frerichs said. “The second thing we tell them, is to cash the check! Who couldn’t use a little extra pocket money this summer?”
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 crossmatches 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.
Enhanced Money Match is part of the office’s Unclaimed Property program, also known as I-CASH. It is one of the state’s oldest consumer protection initiatives. In Illinois, the state treasurer is tasked with safeguarding unclaimed property, such as the contents of overlooked safe deposit boxes, unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts and unused rebate cards. Illinois holds more than $5 billion in unclaimed property. More than $2.3 billion has been returned since Frerichs took office, the most in state history. The state treasurer is legally required to return missing money to its owners or heirs, no matter how long it takes.
To see if you have missing money, check the online database at www.illinoistreasurer.gov/ICASH.
