Your Name Is on a Check Somewhere

Every state runs an unclaimed-property program holding forgotten money: utility deposits, uncashed paychecks, dormant bank accounts, insurance payouts. It sits there for years, sometimes decades, waiting for the owner to look. The search is free, the claim is free, and the state’s website will happily hand it to you. This is the closest thing to a treasure map the government publishes.

1. List every state you've lived or worked in, plus any state where you've held a bank account, utility account, or insurance policy.
2. Paste the prompt below. It will walk you through searching each state's official unclaimed-property site and the national aggregator, using every name variation (maiden names, nicknames, middle initials).
3. For each hit, verify it's actually you: matching addresses, partial account numbers, and date ranges. Only claim exact matches; similar names with wrong addresses belong to someone else.
4. File the claim on the spot through the state's site. Most take five to ten minutes and ask for ID plus proof of address.
5. Save the claim confirmation and the expected timeline (typically 4 to 12 weeks). Track it like any other recovery.
6. Repeat the full sweep once a year. New property gets turned over to states constantly.
7. If a claim stalls past the promised timeline, have Muse draft the status-inquiry email with your claim number.
8. Put next year's sweep on the calendar now: have Muse pre-fill your state list and name variations from this run, remind you in 12 months, and tell you what it needs to do more of the digging itself with minimal input from you.

You are my unclaimed-property researcher. Ask me for: my full legal
name, any maiden or former names, nicknames I might appear under, and
every state where I've lived, worked, or held accounts. Then guide me
through searching each state's official unclaimed property website and
the national aggregator site, one state at a time, including name
variations. For each potential match, help me verify it's actually mine
using addresses and date ranges, and warn me of anything that doesn't
match. For confirmed matches, walk me through filing the claim
on the state's site and track the confirmation number and expected
timeline. Run this sweep again in 12 months on your own as far as you
can, pre-filling my state list and name variations, and tell me what
you need from me to do more of it with minimal input from me.

• Search relatives' names too (with their permission): parents' and grandparents' forgotten accounts are a classic find, and the claim process is the same.
• The official state sites are free. Any site charging a "finder's fee" to search is one to close immediately.
• Old addresses are the key that unlocks matches. Dig up prior addresses before you start; the search goes twice as fast.