Maine, the Pine Tree State, has more to offer than the terrifyingly frigged winters in the northeastern most part of the United States is famous for. As of June 2007, the Office of the State Treasurer was holding more than $131 million in Maine unclaimed money, spread out over more than 540,000 accounts. That's a lot of clams, or lobsters in this case.

Abandoned property is considered "unclaimed" after it sits dormant for a specific period of time. Each state has its own dormancy periods for each type of asset. In Maine, dormancy periods range from 1 year to 15 years, depending on the account type, but most ME dormancy periods are 3 years. State law requires that assets be turned over to the state for safe keeping after the appropriate dormancy period is reached. At this point, the state treasurer is in charge of adding the record to their system, making it available for the rightful owner to find and claim it.

Though hard to believe, across the country there really are tens of billions in unclaimed funds, waiting to be tracked down by the rightful owners. Missing money is often dismissed as a scam or myth because people simply can't accept that people could really just forget about or abandon that much money. All people need to do is contact their state treasurer to confirm that these monies are real.

One reason that unclaimed assets totals continue to grow in all states is because the states are notoriously inefficient when it comes to returning these properties to the citizens. Many states have stepped up efforts to put money back in the pockets of the people it belongs to, yet the amount turned over to the state each year continues to vastly outpace the amount given back to the people.

Aside from the fact that most people still aren't aware of the joys of claiming forgotten money, those that are generally don't have a clue how to search. Every unclaimed money site is different and only a few are actually legitimate and maintain accurate records. Even state records are notoriously inaccurate because they are not updated in real time. While accounts are turned over to the state all the time, there will be no searchable record until someone physically adds the record to the system. On top of that, as noted, there are so many different dormancy periods that assets are constantly being turned over, so Maine's records are constantly being updated.

The first rule in searching for lost cash is to search frequently or one can never be confident in the thoroughness of their search. But unreliable records are only the beginning of the hurdles that often get in the way of regular people just starting out on their search for lost assets.

Learning tips from experts in locating unclaimed money can jumpstart your search and help reunite you with your money quicker than the average, uninformed citizen starting out without any guidance. People truly hoping to explore all possible claims would be wise to educate themselves before beginning the process of tracking down lost money.