Louisiana State Treasurer John M. Schroder recently announced the 50th Anniversary of Louisiana’s Unclaimed Property Program. More than half of the unclaimed property checks ever written from Louisiana Department of Treasury have been during Schroder’s administration. Over the past fifty years, Louisiana’s Unclaimed Property Program has issued 1.38 million unclaimed property checks, totaling $727 million, to the rightful owners. During Schroder’s administration, 760,575 checks have been printed putting $278 million back into the hands of the owners and into the state’s economy.

“Louisiana’s Unclaimed Property Program is a true success story for our state,” said Treasurer Schroder. “Thanks in part to advances in technology, the addition of an in-house attorney and an outreach team to investigate large claims, we’ve seen an unparalleled increase in returns between 2017 and 2023. And the best part is that we’ve done this without increasing our administrative overhead. In fact, state law allows us to spend up to seven percent of our self-generated funds for administrative expenses, but we operate at an expense of less than three percent.”

2023 commemorates the 50th year of Louisiana’s Unclaimed Property Program. Act 146 of the 1972 Legislative session created the Louisiana Unclaimed Property Program, signed into law by Governor Edwin Edwards on July 3, 1972. Because of reporting deadlines, money was not received into the program until 1973. Today’s law is substantially different from the original law, which was significantly revised in 1986 and again in 1991.

Unclaimed property is lost or forgotten money from items such as royalties, unclaimed cash, stocks, bonds, securities, and insurance proceeds never paid out. One in six individuals in Louisiana has unclaimed property, with claims averaging $900. To check for unclaimed property, go to LaCashClaim.org.