Does the State of Wyoming have your cash?

by CJ Baker

As a general rule, if you run across a website promising an easy cash reward, you should click away and maybe scan your device for viruses.

But here’s a safe one that’s worth checking out if you’re a current or former Wyoming resident: www.mycash.wyo.gov.

Run by the State Treasurer’s Office, the site is a clearinghouse for various property that, for all kinds of reasons, hasn’t made it into the hands of its rightful owner.  

The items can include payments from insurance companies, refunds of phone bills, utility deposits or other subscriptions, money left over from abandoned bank accounts or financial transactions or even stocks.

“In a nutshell, unclaimed property is money that you have lost and is reported to the state,” Jeff Robertson, the office’s administrator of unclaimed property, explained in a 2019 video.

“We’ll hold on to this money forever in your name, but hopefully we return it to you right away,” he added.Unfortunately, much of the cash does not find its way back to its owners for some time. As of this month, there were more than 900,000 different pieces of unclaimed property in the state’s database, totaling more than $100 million.

“We have stepped up our efforts to reunite owners with their unclaimed properties, but the amount turned into the State continues to outpace the amount we are able to return,” Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier said in a recent statement.

Meier says his staff works to locate the owners of the largest properties, but with hundreds of thousands of items, the vast majority of people will only get their property if they make a claim on their own. That’s where a periodic visit to the website can prove useful — particularly given that the state has received $7.45 million in just the last two months.

“Even if you got a check from us a year ago, it’s worth the time to search to see if any of these new properties turned over to the State belong to you,” Meier said in a statement.

Some folks are owed a lot. Over the summer, the treasurer’s office located a former Jackson resident who’d been missing $6.72 million worth of shares for roughly three years. However, the vast majority of the sums are modest, ranging to as little as 1 cent. But it’s better than nothing.

And don’t make the mistake of assuming that you, your friends and family members aren’t on the list. There’s an excellent chance that a search of the database may very well turn up cash owed to someone you know.

While www.mycash.wyo.gov may not offer untold riches for you, it’s worth your time to take a look.

-Powell Tribune