(Part 1 of 2)

New Hampshire may be nicknamed The Granite State because of its primary, and incredibly valuable natural resource, but there is another treasure hidden in this New England state that isn't as known. New Hampshire unclaimed money, many millions in fact, belonging to residents of the state is currently being held by the NH State Treasury, waiting for the rightful owners who only need to step forward and claim what is theirs'.

NH citizens are familiar with freezing weather and their beautiful White Mountains, but they can hit the slopes of the mountains of cold hard cash if they just learn about how to find and take back forgotten funds already owed to them. The first hurdle is simply learning about the existence of the phenomenon of unclaimed property. Trouble is, most people are still unaware of the fact that there really are tens of billions of dollars in state treasury departments across the country, just waiting to be tracked down. Beyond just being aware of these assets, people need to know where and how to search for them, or they may waste a lot of time and energy without getting anything in return.

The reasons unclaimed property is often difficult to locate are numerous, but among the more common are the lack of knowledge of the searcher on which sites to use and how often they need to search.

There are a number of different kinds of assets that can become abandoned and considered "unclaimed", but the state treasurer's website lists the following as the most common: Stocks, Certificates of Deposit, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Refunds, Gift Certificates, Payroll, Wages, Commissions, Salary, Death Benefits, Uncashed Checks, Insurance Payments, Dividends, Paid-up Life Insurance Policies, Money Orders, Demutualization Proceeds, Deposits. Each type of account can only be classified as "unclaimed" (and handed over to the state) after it has seen no activity for a certain time period of time, which is unique among each type. These dormancy periods are usually between 1 and 5 years in NH, depending on the account type.

(to be continued)

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