Guide
Is missingmoney.com legit?
Short answer: yes, it is legitimate and free. Longer answer: it misses several large states, and that trips people up constantly.
What it actually is
MissingMoney.com is operated on behalf of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators — NAUPA — which is the professional association of the state officials who run unclaimed property programmes. It aggregates the public databases of most participating states into one search.
It is free. It does not charge to search and it does not charge to claim. There is no upsell, and no legitimate reason anyone should ever pay to use it.
The catch: it does not cover every state
This is the part that costs people money. Several large states do not participate, so a clean search on MissingMoney.com does not mean you have nothing — it means you have nothing in the participating states.
California, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Oregon all run their own searches outside the aggregator. Between them that is a very large share of the US population and an enormous share of the money.
- Search MissingMoney.com first — it is free and covers most states.
- Then search each non-participating state you have lived in, directly.
- Then search under every name variant: maiden names, middle initials, nicknames.
- Then search deceased parents and grandparents, and any business you have owned.
How to tell the real one from the copies
The scam in this category is not MissingMoney.com. It is the sites that imitate it — near-identical domains, official-looking seals, and a form that asks for your Social Security number before it shows you anything.
Two rules cover almost all of it. A real unclaimed property search never needs your Social Security number to show you results, and nobody legitimate ever asks for a payment before you receive your money.
Do you need us at all?
Often, no. If MissingMoney.com or your state site finds property in your own name, at an address you can still document, filing it yourself is free and genuinely straightforward. We will tell you the same thing if you ask us.
Where a recovery firm earns its fee is the claim that is not straightforward: a deceased owner, a dissolved business, securities that need reissuing, several heirs who all have to sign, or an address from 1996 that you cannot prove you lived at.
Common questions
Is missingmoney.com a government website?
It is not a government agency itself, but it is operated on behalf of NAUPA, the association of state unclaimed property administrators, and the data comes from participating state programmes. It is the closest thing to an official multi-state search that exists.
Does missingmoney.com cost anything?
No. Searching is free and claiming through the state it directs you to is free. If a site that looks like it asks you for a payment, you are not on the real one.
Which states are not on missingmoney.com?
California, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Oregon run their own searches. If you have lived in any of them, a clean MissingMoney.com result tells you nothing about property held there.
Is it safe to enter my name?
Yes — and your name is all it should need. Unclaimed property records are already public; that is how anyone can search them. Be wary of any site that demands a Social Security number before showing you results.
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General information about state unclaimed property law, not legal advice. Rules vary by state and change; the controlling text is always the statute of the state holding the property. Last reviewed September 2026.
Find My Unclaimed is a private company. We are not a government agency and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any state treasurer, controller, or unclaimed property office. You always have the right to file your own claim directly with the state for free.