October 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Did you know you might have money waiting for you—and not even know it?
In this episode, we’re joined by Terry Stanton to explore Michigan’s Unclaimed Property program. Learn how the program works, discover recent improvements driven by human-centered web design, and hear about the friendly rivalry heating up between Michigan and Ohio this November as both states compete to return forgotten funds to their residents.
This fiscal year, Michigan is aiming to return $175 million—and we’re calling on you to help us reach that goal, defend our title as reigning champs, and once again beat our neighbors to the south. Search for your forgotten funds today at michigan.gov/UnclaimedProperty.
RESOURCES
- MI Unclaimed Property
- Missing Money (all 50 states & some Canadian provinces)
- Questions? Call Michigan's Unclaimed Property at 517-636-5320 (M-F, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Introduction (00:01):
Welcome to Treasury Talk, a podcast
featuring timely tips andinformation for Michigan
taxpayers, hosted by StateTreasurer Rachel Eubanks.
Listen for takeaways from oursubject matter experts that will
support you, your family, andyour business.
Treasurer Eubanks (00:18):
Hello to our listeners.
I'm Rachel Eubanks and this isTreasury Talk.
Did you know you might havemoney waiting for you and not
even know it?
Unclaimed property is like astatewide lost and found box.
Instead of umbrellas orjackets, it's money, stocks, or
even safe deposit box contentsthat have been forgotten or left
behind.
(00:38):
Today we're diving intoMichigan's Unclaimed Property
Program with a frequent guest,Terry Stanton.
He's going to talk about someof the latest developments in
the Unclaimed Property Program,including a friendly competition
with our neighbors to thesouth, the Ohio Department of
Commerce, to reunite you andyour business with your
property.
Stick around.
(00:59):
You might just discover you orsomebody you know has money
waiting to be claimed.
Terry Stanton (01:05):
Thank you, Treasurer, for having me here.
It's always a pleasure.
And we like nothing more thantalking about unclaimed
property.
Treasurer Eubanks (01:11):
Excellent, excellent.
So, Terry, before we getstarted, let's tell our
listeners a little bit aboutyourself.
What is your treasury story andhow did you come to work for
the Michigan Department ofTreasury?
And how did you get to startworking with unclaimed property?
Terry Stanton (01:22):
It's a sordid tale.
I actually like to say that Ikind of had three different
careers.
I was in television for almost20 years, where I anchor
reporter uh worked in in Flint,uh in Milwaukee, and here in
Lansing.
And after those almost 20years, uh it just got to be a
bit much, three-year contracts,yada, yada, yada.
(01:43):
And so I was looking forsomething else, something in
public relations promotions.
Um, and lo and behold, aposition was open at Treasury in
the last year and a half of theEngler administration.
So I took the job as presssecretary, which evolved into
director of communications overtime, and I did that for 15
years.
(02:03):
Um, and then uh through variousand sundry events in my life,
working in that capacity wasn'ta lot of fun anymore.
So I needed something new.
And the opening was atUnclaimed Property, and I asked
uh Nick Curry at the time if ifuh I could take a shot at that.
And he said, What are youdoing?
That's crazy boring.
(02:23):
Don't you need this excitingstuff?
And I said, No, I need boringstuff to do again.
It's been anything butunclaimed property is a great uh
program that we have atTreasury, and I'm very proud of
the work that we do.
Treasurer Eubanks (02:35):
Yeah, well, that's a great uh background for
why you have the perfectpodcast voice and what a
tremendous career you've hadhere with Treasury.
So, can you explain a little toour listeners about how the
unclaimed property works?
This might be one of the thingswhen I'm out talking to people
that they have the leastunderstanding about what we do.
And what are the basics forthose who are hearing about this
program for the first time?
Terry Stanton (02:54):
Right.
Well, unclaimed property isproperty that belongs to
someone, actually, an individualor a business or a local unit
of government, but they nolonger are aware of it or they
don't have possession of itbecause it's in the possession
of a holder, which can be alocal government, a business
entity, a university, whateverthe case might be, any entities
that have payroll, that payinvoices, that have vendors.
(03:17):
And so payments get lost,accounts get lost, credit
balances get lost over time.
And under our act, um, thoseproperties, once they are,
they've gone dormant, whichtypically is a three-year period
where the holder has no contactwith the owner, then the holder
is to report those propertiesto us.
And we take them into ourcustody, they're claimable in
(03:40):
perpetuity, and then we work toreunite them over the next year
to 30 years with the rightfulowner of the owner's heirs.
So it's a very rewarding job.
And our staff love to hear thestories from claimants about
thank you for that $1,300.
I was able to get eye surgery,or I was able to stay in my
house.
So those are the type ofstories that are terrific and
(04:01):
keep us keep us going.
Treasurer Eubanks (04:02):
Yeah, two little anecdotal stories about
the unclaimed propertyexperience.
I've been out presenting togroups and one time along with
a, let's just say, a fellowmember of the governor's cabinet
to protect the innocent.
And this person went back andfound a security deposit for an
apartment that they had incollege.
You'd think, how on earth couldI forget about that money?
But it's very, very easy to do.
And anytime I'm out speaking,we always hear stories about
(04:25):
somebody finding, you know,substantial amounts of money.
So this is real money thatfolks should be, you know,
trying to contact us to correctclaim.
Terry Stanton (04:31):
A lot of times we even with bank accounts,
someone has a bank account thatthey opened 10 years ago, and
maybe it doesn't have a hugeamount of money, but it's just
kind of a set aside.
And if there's no activity onthat account for three years,
then the bank reaches out to theindividual.
And we all get so much junkmail that I think a lot of
people take that due diligenceletter and kind of round file
it, like, oh, it's just morejunk mail, and they don't
(04:54):
respond to the bank, but thenthe bank reports it to us.
So we do hear from peoplesaying, Why did you take my
account?
And we have to say, Well, wedidn't take it, it's under law,
reported to us, but we're happyto get it back to you.
Treasurer Eubanks (05:06):
Absolutely.
And this is a substantialimpact when you sort of add it
all up together.
So, how much money has actuallybeen returned to Michiganders
in recent years?
Terry Stanton (05:14):
Yeah, last fiscal year was just ended, we
returned 163.6 million, whichwas a program record, and it
topped our record from last yearby 13 million.
So we're very proud of that.
And over the last five fiscalyears, we're over $700 million
that's gone back to claim it.
So um we like to pat ourselveson the back for that, but we
(05:36):
don't rest on our laurelsbecause our goal for this fiscal
year is 175 million.
So we're trying to uptick itevery year.
And we hope that that peoplewill go to unclaimed
property.michigan.gov and searchtheir name.
Our search engine is very easyto use.
Um, and we like to think thatour claims process is is fairly
easy for most folks.
Treasurer Eubanks (05:58):
Absolutely.
And having tuned into thatwebsite, I can uh attest that
very, very easy to use.
Thank you. So let's get backto the competition.
Let's get back to this friendlyunclaimed property challenge
that we're having with ourneighbors to the south.
There's obviously a bigfootball game coming up in a
couple of weeks.
So why are we doing it thisyear and why is this so special?
Terry Stanton (06:16):
In 2023, um, the state of Ohio, their unclaimed
property operation, said, Hey,would you guys like to have a
challenge based on the footballgames that are going on in
November between Michigan Stateand Ohio State and Michigan and
Ohio State?
And we said, Yeah, why not?
Let's have some fun with that.
So I went down to Columbus andwe did some promotional videos
and we had fun.
Um, and so the contest was fromNovember 1 till November 30 for
(06:39):
which state could have the mostsearches on their website for
property.
Um, we won, of course, as didMichigan over Ohio State that
year.
Um, this year, uh last yearthey didn't, they couldn't do
it.
They were doing animplementation of a system, but
they asked again if they couldhave a shot at us in 25, and we
said, bring it.
Um, the uh unfortunate thing isMichigan State doesn't play
(07:00):
Ohio State this year, so it'sreally truly a Michigan-Ohio
State rivalry.
Um, but we're in the process ofdoing our own videos.
I again went down to Columbusand had some fun with the folks
in Ohio.
So we'll be promoting uh thiscompetition and hopefully um
Michigan residents will back uson that and jump out of the
huddle and hit the gridiron andsearch on our site.
Treasurer Eubanks (07:22):
All right, that's right, listeners.
You can help Michigan beat Ohioby checking for Unclaimed
Property and encouraging yourfriends and family to do the
same.
Every claim counts in thiscontest.
So if you're curious already,feel free to pause this podcast
and check Michigan.gov slashunclaimed property, and we'll
still be here when you get back.
So, Terry, I understand thatthe Unclaimed Property website
(07:44):
has undergone some changes tohelp individuals be reunited
with their property.
Can you tell me about some ofthose updates that you've made,
things that you've done to makeit more user-friendly?
Terry Stanton (07:53):
Absolutely.
And I want to thank you forsome of that because it was a
meeting that we had with you andsome others in the executive
office that where we looked atthe site, we were explaining to
you what we do and how we do it,and you had some questions
about why certain things werethe way they were.
Um, so as a result of that, wedid a human-centered design
internally here in Treasury, andthey had, I believe it was 14
(08:13):
recommendations for our website.
We accepted 11 of the 14.
Um, the other three we couldn'tdo because it would break
something else in our system.
So we just couldn't do that.
But it was a it was a betterlook and feel, it was cleaner.
Um, we improved the video uhwhere the video would break up
in in different places.
It was a lot less busy andeasier to understand.
(08:35):
So we replaced some verbiageand we think we really cleaned
it up.
If you look at the versiontoday as opposed to before the
transition, it's very clean,it's very easy uh to use.
So we hope that folks arefinding that and the feedback
from uh just about everybodywe've talked to about that or
heard from about that is verypositive.
Treasurer Eubanks (08:56):
And you added some translations as well,
didn't you?
Terry Stanton (08:58):
We did recently just do a translation.
Um, Kelmar, the vendor thatworks with us that hosts our
system, had made available um aprogram where you can do up to
10 languages.
So we now have that available.
Um we took that we looked atthe top 10 non-English languages
in the state of Michigan and weimplemented those on our site.
So it's not for the forms.
(09:19):
If someone were to print offthe form, it doesn't change
that, but it certainly makes thesearch and the information that
they get back from the searchin their own native language, if
you will.
Treasurer Eubanks (09:29):
Well, I appreciate your attention to
continuous improvement infiguring out more ways to meet
more Michigander.
So that's been an outstandingeffort.
So, Terry, thank you so muchfor joining me today to share
your treasury story and also totalk about Michigan's unclaimed
property program.
Terry Stanton (09:43):
Absolutely a pleasure every time.
Thanks, Treasurer.
Treasurer Eubanks (09:45):
So, whether it's a forgotten paycheck, an
old bank account, or aretirement check, there's a good
chance something is waiting foryou.
I encourage all of ourlisteners to once again go to
Michigan.gov/ unclaimed propertyto file their unclaimed
property claim and help thestate of Michigan win in the
high stakes contest against thestate of Ohio.
(10:08):
Thank you for listening toTreasury Talk and go blue.
Welcome to Treasury Talk, a podcast
featuring timely tips andinformation for Michigan
taxpayers, hosted by StateTreasurer Rachel Eubanks.
Listen for takeaways from oursubject matter experts that will
support you, your family, andyour business.
Treasurer Eubanks (00:18):
Hello to our listeners.
I'm Rachel Eubanks and this isTreasury Talk.
Did you know you might havemoney waiting for you and not
even know it?
Unclaimed property is like astatewide lost and found box.
Instead of umbrellas orjackets, it's money, stocks, or
even safe deposit box contentsthat have been forgotten or left
behind.
(00:38):
Today we're diving intoMichigan's Unclaimed Property
Program with a frequent guest,Terry Stanton.
He's going to talk about someof the latest developments in
the Unclaimed Property Program,including a friendly competition
with our neighbors to thesouth, the Ohio Department of
Commerce, to reunite you andyour business with your
property.
Stick around.
(00:59):
You might just discover you orsomebody you know has money
waiting to be claimed.
Terry Stanton (01:05):
Thank you, Treasurer, for having me here.
It's always a pleasure.
And we like nothing more thantalking about unclaimed
property.
Treasurer Eubanks (01:11):
Excellent, excellent.
So, Terry, before we getstarted, let's tell our
listeners a little bit aboutyourself.
What is your treasury story andhow did you come to work for
the Michigan Department ofTreasury?
And how did you get to startworking with unclaimed property?
Terry Stanton (01:22):
It's a sordid tale.
I actually like to say that Ikind of had three different
careers.
I was in television for almost20 years, where I anchor
reporter uh worked in in Flint,uh in Milwaukee, and here in
Lansing.
And after those almost 20years, uh it just got to be a
bit much, three-year contracts,yada, yada, yada.
(01:43):
And so I was looking forsomething else, something in
public relations promotions.
Um, and lo and behold, aposition was open at Treasury in
the last year and a half of theEngler administration.
So I took the job as presssecretary, which evolved into
director of communications overtime, and I did that for 15
years.
(02:03):
Um, and then uh through variousand sundry events in my life,
working in that capacity wasn'ta lot of fun anymore.
So I needed something new.
And the opening was atUnclaimed Property, and I asked
uh Nick Curry at the time if ifuh I could take a shot at that.
And he said, What are youdoing?
That's crazy boring.
(02:23):
Don't you need this excitingstuff?
And I said, No, I need boringstuff to do again.
It's been anything butunclaimed property is a great uh
program that we have atTreasury, and I'm very proud of
the work that we do.
Treasurer Eubanks (02:35):
Yeah, well, that's a great uh background for
why you have the perfectpodcast voice and what a
tremendous career you've hadhere with Treasury.
So, can you explain a little toour listeners about how the
unclaimed property works?
This might be one of the thingswhen I'm out talking to people
that they have the leastunderstanding about what we do.
And what are the basics forthose who are hearing about this
program for the first time?
Terry Stanton (02:54):
Right.
Well, unclaimed property isproperty that belongs to
someone, actually, an individualor a business or a local unit
of government, but they nolonger are aware of it or they
don't have possession of itbecause it's in the possession
of a holder, which can be alocal government, a business
entity, a university, whateverthe case might be, any entities
that have payroll, that payinvoices, that have vendors.
(03:17):
And so payments get lost,accounts get lost, credit
balances get lost over time.
And under our act, um, thoseproperties, once they are,
they've gone dormant, whichtypically is a three-year period
where the holder has no contactwith the owner, then the holder
is to report those propertiesto us.
And we take them into ourcustody, they're claimable in
(03:40):
perpetuity, and then we work toreunite them over the next year
to 30 years with the rightfulowner of the owner's heirs.
So it's a very rewarding job.
And our staff love to hear thestories from claimants about
thank you for that $1,300.
I was able to get eye surgery,or I was able to stay in my
house.
So those are the type ofstories that are terrific and
(04:01):
keep us keep us going.
Treasurer Eubanks (04:02):
Yeah, two little anecdotal stories about
the unclaimed propertyexperience.
I've been out presenting togroups and one time along with
a, let's just say, a fellowmember of the governor's cabinet
to protect the innocent.
And this person went back andfound a security deposit for an
apartment that they had incollege.
You'd think, how on earth couldI forget about that money?
But it's very, very easy to do.
And anytime I'm out speaking,we always hear stories about
(04:25):
somebody finding, you know,substantial amounts of money.
So this is real money thatfolks should be, you know,
trying to contact us to correctclaim.
Terry Stanton (04:31):
A lot of times we even with bank accounts,
someone has a bank account thatthey opened 10 years ago, and
maybe it doesn't have a hugeamount of money, but it's just
kind of a set aside.
And if there's no activity onthat account for three years,
then the bank reaches out to theindividual.
And we all get so much junkmail that I think a lot of
people take that due diligenceletter and kind of round file
it, like, oh, it's just morejunk mail, and they don't
(04:54):
respond to the bank, but thenthe bank reports it to us.
So we do hear from peoplesaying, Why did you take my
account?
And we have to say, Well, wedidn't take it, it's under law,
reported to us, but we're happyto get it back to you.
Treasurer Eubanks (05:06):
Absolutely.
And this is a substantialimpact when you sort of add it
all up together.
So, how much money has actuallybeen returned to Michiganders
in recent years?
Terry Stanton (05:14):
Yeah, last fiscal year was just ended, we
returned 163.6 million, whichwas a program record, and it
topped our record from last yearby 13 million.
So we're very proud of that.
And over the last five fiscalyears, we're over $700 million
that's gone back to claim it.
So um we like to pat ourselveson the back for that, but we
(05:36):
don't rest on our laurelsbecause our goal for this fiscal
year is 175 million.
So we're trying to uptick itevery year.
And we hope that that peoplewill go to unclaimed
property.michigan.gov and searchtheir name.
Our search engine is very easyto use.
Um, and we like to think thatour claims process is is fairly
easy for most folks.
Treasurer Eubanks (05:58):
Absolutely.
And having tuned into thatwebsite, I can uh attest that
very, very easy to use.
Thank you. So let's get backto the competition.
Let's get back to this friendlyunclaimed property challenge
that we're having with ourneighbors to the south.
There's obviously a bigfootball game coming up in a
couple of weeks.
So why are we doing it thisyear and why is this so special?
Terry Stanton (06:16):
In 2023, um, the state of Ohio, their unclaimed
property operation, said, Hey,would you guys like to have a
challenge based on the footballgames that are going on in
November between Michigan Stateand Ohio State and Michigan and
Ohio State?
And we said, Yeah, why not?
Let's have some fun with that.
So I went down to Columbus andwe did some promotional videos
and we had fun.
Um, and so the contest was fromNovember 1 till November 30 for
(06:39):
which state could have the mostsearches on their website for
property.
Um, we won, of course, as didMichigan over Ohio State that
year.
Um, this year, uh last yearthey didn't, they couldn't do
it.
They were doing animplementation of a system, but
they asked again if they couldhave a shot at us in 25, and we
said, bring it.
Um, the uh unfortunate thing isMichigan State doesn't play
(07:00):
Ohio State this year, so it'sreally truly a Michigan-Ohio
State rivalry.
Um, but we're in the process ofdoing our own videos.
I again went down to Columbusand had some fun with the folks
in Ohio.
So we'll be promoting uh thiscompetition and hopefully um
Michigan residents will back uson that and jump out of the
huddle and hit the gridiron andsearch on our site.
Treasurer Eubanks (07:22):
All right, that's right, listeners.
You can help Michigan beat Ohioby checking for Unclaimed
Property and encouraging yourfriends and family to do the
same.
Every claim counts in thiscontest.
So if you're curious already,feel free to pause this podcast
and check Michigan.gov slashunclaimed property, and we'll
still be here when you get back.
So, Terry, I understand thatthe Unclaimed Property website
(07:44):
has undergone some changes tohelp individuals be reunited
with their property.
Can you tell me about some ofthose updates that you've made,
things that you've done to makeit more user-friendly?
Terry Stanton (07:53):
Absolutely.
And I want to thank you forsome of that because it was a
meeting that we had with you andsome others in the executive
office that where we looked atthe site, we were explaining to
you what we do and how we do it,and you had some questions
about why certain things werethe way they were.
Um, so as a result of that, wedid a human-centered design
internally here in Treasury, andthey had, I believe it was 14
(08:13):
recommendations for our website.
We accepted 11 of the 14.
Um, the other three we couldn'tdo because it would break
something else in our system.
So we just couldn't do that.
But it was a it was a betterlook and feel, it was cleaner.
Um, we improved the video uhwhere the video would break up
in in different places.
It was a lot less busy andeasier to understand.
(08:35):
So we replaced some verbiageand we think we really cleaned
it up.
If you look at the versiontoday as opposed to before the
transition, it's very clean,it's very easy uh to use.
So we hope that folks arefinding that and the feedback
from uh just about everybodywe've talked to about that or
heard from about that is verypositive.
Treasurer Eubanks (08:56):
And you added some translations as well,
didn't you?
Terry Stanton (08:58):
We did recently just do a translation.
Um, Kelmar, the vendor thatworks with us that hosts our
system, had made available um aprogram where you can do up to
10 languages.
So we now have that available.
Um we took that we looked atthe top 10 non-English languages
in the state of Michigan and weimplemented those on our site.
So it's not for the forms.
(09:19):
If someone were to print offthe form, it doesn't change
that, but it certainly makes thesearch and the information that
they get back from the searchin their own native language, if
you will.
Treasurer Eubanks (09:29):
Well, I appreciate your attention to
continuous improvement infiguring out more ways to meet
more Michigander.
So that's been an outstandingeffort.
So, Terry, thank you so muchfor joining me today to share
your treasury story and also totalk about Michigan's unclaimed
property program.
Terry Stanton (09:43):
Absolutely a pleasure every time.
Thanks, Treasurer.
Treasurer Eubanks (09:45):
So, whether it's a forgotten paycheck, an
old bank account, or aretirement check, there's a good
chance something is waiting foryou.
I encourage all of ourlisteners to once again go to
Michigan.gov/ unclaimed propertyto file their unclaimed
property claim and help thestate of Michigan win in the
high stakes contest against thestate of Ohio.
(10:08):
Thank you for listening toTreasury Talk and go blue.
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