BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana officials have identified 125 individuals eligible to claim more than $1.7 million in unclaimed property, following a recent distribution of $6.5 million to residents statewide.
The latest effort follows the mailing of 44,164 checks on June 12 to individuals in every parish, according to State Treasurer John Fleming. The newly identified recipients have claims exceeding the threshold for automatic payments and must complete a claims process to receive their funds.
Claim forms were mailed last week for amounts ranging from $5,000 to $90,000, along with instructions for verification and payment.
“I want to stress to all the recipients that these claim forms from the Louisiana Department of Treasury are real,” Fleming said. “So, if you receive one, please follow the instructions and claim your money.”
The outreach effort is supported by a data-sharing agreement between the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the Louisiana Department of the Treasury, authorized under Act 339 of the 2018 legislative session. The law allows agencies to match address records to improve delivery of unclaimed property and reduce backlogs.
State officials said the Treasury updates address records annually and issues payments without requiring claims when possible.
Louisiana currently holds about $1.2 billion in unclaimed property, including cash, stocks, bonds, insurance proceeds and other financial assets. Businesses transfer these funds to the state when they are unable to locate the rightful owners, often due to outdated contact information.
Unclaimed property can include payroll checks, dormant bank accounts, utility deposits, royalties, interest payments and life insurance proceeds.
Officials estimate that one in six Louisiana residents has unclaimed property, with the average claim valued at about $900. Residents can search for potential claims through the state’s unclaimed property database or by contacting the Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Division.