Earlier this year, Montpelier firefighter Jake Larrabee says a colleague was looking through Vermont’s database of unclaimed property when he discovered a surprise.

“One of our members was looking online, checked himself in the unclaimed property search, and then said, ‘I wonder if there’s anyone else,’” the lieutenant firefighter said. “And then he went through his family and then he put in the association for whatever reason — I don’t know what prompted him to do that — and found it.”

The association in question was the decades-old Montpelier Firefighters Association. For years, the non-profit raised and distributed funds for Montpelier firefighters and their families in need of assistance. But as members retired, Larrabee said, the association fell dormant, with only a scholarship fund remaining active.

The organization had a bank account — under the names of some of the inactive members — and Larrabee assumed the money would still be accessible if they chose to reactivate the association.

As it turns out, that was not the case. At some point, the $33,000 in that account was handed over to the state, as required by law.

Modern life is full of financial assets: bank accounts, insurance payouts, paychecks, investment funds. Most of them are correctly tied to their owners, but inevitably some will fall through the cracks. People move, people die, people lose track of property tied to their name.

But that property is still theirs, even if they haven’t claimed it yet. In every state and territory in the country, property holders must make an effort to return unclaimed property to its owner for a period of time before turning it over to the state, a process known as escheatment.

From there, it’s the state’s responsibility to return it. In Vermont, it falls under the authority of the Office of the Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division.

It isn’t just financial assets, either: the department also holds personal documents, coins and even family heirlooms.

“We always say that anybody can have unclaimed property,” said State Treasurer Mike Pieciak. “I think what most people think about is individuals, but when you look through the unclaimed property rolls, you find that there are a lot of pieces of property for small businesses, very large recognizable businesses, a lot of nonprofits. Municipalities have unclaimed property. The state of Vermont has unclaimed property.”

And the numbers continue to grow. This past fiscal year, the Treasurer’s Office returned a record 19,010 properties, totaling $5.8 million — but it also received a record level of new properties, at $18.14 million.

In an effort to increase the amount of reclaimed property, the office has taken a proactive approach, with a pilot program earlier this year targeting 350 Vermonters with unclaimed property achieving a 99% success rate, Pieciak said. A separate pilot program saw $150,000 returned to 250 nonprofits. From the division’s perspective, it can be easier to verify organizations than people.

“You know a business is that particular business. You know a hospital is that particular hospital,” Pieciak said. “When you get a claim that says John Doe or David Smith that lives in Brattleboro, and there’s five other people by that same name, it just becomes more complicated to determine who is the rightful owner of the funds.”

In the case of the firefighters association, Larrabee applied for the funds and, because his name was on one of the signature cards, was able to reclaim the money without too much hassle.

While the association is defunct, Larrabee said the money will be used to help members and their families just as it had in the past, only under an account held by the union, which remains active. He recommended others check the database, too.

“Take a couple minutes to check every so often: check your name, check your family, your friends, the process is really quite easy. And everybody at the unclaimed property division and the state of Vermont and the treasurer’s office has been very helpful and accommodating,” Larrabee said. “This was a significant amount of money that we’re very, very fortunate that we were able to get back.”

Not all unclaimed property is lost or inaccessible. Don and Bernadette Pierson learned that when they recovered $24,000 from their foundation’s PayPal account.

The Piersons run The Stefan Pierson Wish Foundation; a charity created in honor of their son Stefan, who died of cancer in 2015.

Stefan wanted to attend the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but was slightly too old to qualify for Make-A-Wish, his mother, Bernadette, said. A high school friend crowdsourced the funds, allowing him to attend. In his honor, the foundation provides similar wish-fulfilling services for young adults.

To raise money, the foundation ran soccer tournaments every summer. Part of the money was held in a PayPal account, Don said. During the pandemic, the Piersons had to cut back on foundation work to care for another one of their children, Ian, and the threat of COVID meant the tournaments had to be put on hold, as well.

The Piersons did not lose access to the account, but they didn’t touch it, believing they could use the money once the pandemic was over. At some point, though, PayPal remitted the funds to the state, as it’s required to do by law for any unclaimed property.

“They may have sent something to us, but I’ll tell you, I wasn’t watching my [foundation] email because we were kind of on hold.” Don said. Bernadette added, “We were staying up around the clock to take care of our son with just very few people, our kids basically, and us, and I was still working, so we just had heads to the ground trying to get our son through each day.”

A friend of the family who works in the unclaimed property office recognized the Pierson name in the state database of unclaimed property and put the family in contact with the state treasurer. The Piersons had nothing but praise for the treasurer’s office.

The news was bittersweet. Ian died shortly before the family learned of the funds. The family said they will use the money the same way it had been used in the past: to grant the wishes of young adults with cancer like Stefan.

While the state’s unclaimed property holdings are available to be reclaimed by their rightful owners, the state doesn’t just sit on the money. The treasurer’s office estimates the excess amount of money the unclaimed property division receives versus how much it will return to Vermonters and injects that into the general fund. In fiscal year 2024, that was $9.3 million. A reserve fund is available to ensure the Treasurer’s Office is able to pay out claims.

Vermont’s unclaimed property database can be searched at vermont.unclaimedproperty.com, while a national database can be found at missingmoney.com.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message. Or contact the reporter directly at corey.dockser@vermontpublic.org.