(Part 1 of 2)

The most southern of the Dakotas may be home to the country's treasure that is Mt. Rushmore, but ND is holding its own treasure that is nothing to sneeze at. According to the internet site of the State Land Department, there is currently in excess of $23 million in North Dakota unclaimed money, waiting to be reunited with the residents who lost track of it somewhere along the way. The one thing getting between these citizens and their cash, beyond knowledge of the fact that these assets exist, is the knowledge of how to find them and reclaim them.

North Dakotans are lucky to reside in a state that is among the top 5 in the country for percentage of unclaimed property given back to residents. Also keep in mind that the state has one of the lowest populations in the country, at just over 640 thousand. What this means is that ND residents have great odds of discovering and claiming back assets that are rightfully theirs.

The first rule of searching for unclaimed property is to search often. One of the most common mistakes searchers generally make is to search only once on the first internet site they come to that has a search box and they end their search there. This doesn't take in to account that the vast majority of abandoned assets sites don't have accurate data, and even the state's official databases are often slow to be updated. This is a problem, not only due to the fact that an employee in a state office has to physically add the record once it's been given to the state, but because there are different periods of time which must pass, specific to each type of abandoned asset, before they are handed over to the state.

(to be continued)

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State gives owners of
Hundreds of folks with

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