News Release

Doylestown, PA - Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity returned $97,560.25 in unclaimed property to Bucks County Treasurer Kristian Ballerini today at the Bucks County Administration Building.

The total includes 426 individual property items that were identified as belonging to various entities within Bucks County government as part of a thorough, months-long review involving both offices.

The properties ranged in value from $0.24 to $6,000. The oldest dates back to 1975, while some are as recent as 2016. They included balances of uncashed checks, credit balances, unused gift cards, and various other forms of unclaimed property.

“It’s great to know that this money is back where it belongs and will be used by Bucks County to benefit its residents. The nearly four billion dollars in unclaimed property at Treasury doesn’t belong to us, and today’s event is a great example of how a little sleuthing can have a big impact on a whole community. I’m thrilled to work with Treasurer Ballerini and her staff to make this return possible.”

Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Stacy Garrity

“As I began to uncover available claims that rightfully belonged here at home, the challenge was in identifying all the potential spellings and titles that have been sitting in Harrisburg for decades. Having Treasurer Garrity’s office work so quickly with mine to ensure a payment is a great example of local county and state governments working together for the people.”

Bucks County Treasurer, Kristian Ballerini

Garrity and Ballerini were joined at today’s announcement by Sen. Steven J. Santarsiero and Rep. Shelby Labs, each of whom represents Doylestown. Both legislators regularly help constituents with unclaimed property claims.

“I applaud Bucks County Treasurer Ballerini for identifying these unclaimed funds. I was happy to work with her and the Pennsylvania Treasurer’s office to facilitate the return of $100,000 to serve our residents here.”

Sen. Steven J. Santarsiero

“The Unclaimed Property webpage is simple to access and search, but unfortunately it’s overlooked far too often. I’m thrilled to see the unclaimed funds coming back to our community, and I hope this encourages residents to start a search for possible unclaimed property of their own.””

Rep. Shelby Labs

While the full amount of today’s return is being allocated to the county, Treasurer Ballerini’s office will work at the direction of the commissioners as to where the funds belong and how they will be allocated.

Garrity said she hopes to return a lot more money to the residents of Bucks County. “Right now, we have $110 million waiting to be claimed by people who lived – and in many cases still live – in Bucks County,” Garrity said. “I encourage everyone to go to Treasury’s website, patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property, to see if any unclaimed property belongs to them.”

All told, Treasury has more than $3.8 billion in unclaimed property owed to Pennsylvanians. Unclaimed property can belong to individual residents, businesses, local governments, school districts, non-profit organizations and more. About one out of every ten Pennsylvanians is owed unclaimed property, and the average claim is worth $2,000.

Unclaimed property law requires dormant properties to be turned over to Treasury after three years of inactivity for most types of property, and two years for payroll checks. Unclaimed property can include monies from dormant bank accounts, abandoned stocks, contents of safe deposit boxes, uncashed checks and more.

Property can also come to Treasury due to simple discrepancies, such as a misspelled name or an out-of-date address. Individuals and organizations can keep property from becoming part of the state’s unclaimed property program by doing the following:

• Keep financial institutions informed of any address changes.
• Communicate with all financial institutions at least once every three years.
• Keep up-to-date records of financial information including bank accounts, stocks, life insurance policies, safe deposit boxes, etc.
• Let a family member or trusted advisor know where you keep financial records.
• Deposit or cash all checks as you receive them.

Anyone can see if unclaimed property is waiting for them or a group they’re associated with by searching Treasury’s database at patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property. Treasury catalogs unclaimed property with the information it receives, so it can be beneficial for people to try variations of their name when searching the database.

Treasury’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property can be contacted by email at tupmail@patreasury.gov to assist with any claim questions free of charge.