West Virginia’s state treasurers have a pretty good track record lately of working to ensure residents’ money does not stay locked in the coffers of state government. The Unclaimed Property Division has returned many millions of dollars to those who were unaware the state had their money.

State Treasurer Larry Pack has continued that tradition, and announced that in February alone more than $5 million was returned to individuals, businesses and other organizations. It was the fourth-highest monthly figure in the program’s history.

“My Office is thrilled to continue returning funds at the fastest pace in state history,” Pack said. “This is the people’s money, and we’re working diligently to get it back to them. I encourage everyone to keep checking our unclaimed property database because you never know if there may be unclaimed property funds in your name.”

In fact, there is more than $468 million still waiting to be returned.

You’d think people would be clamoring to find out whether their names are on the unclaimed property lists, but Pack’s office is encountering a problem. He’s having to urge people to cash the unclaimed property checks they’ve received.

At the beginning of this month, two-thirds of the 2,357 checks mailed to recipients in September 2024 have been deposited. (That’s $1.8 million worth of checks). But there are still 778 checks totaling more than $966,256 in danger of not being deposited before this month’s stale date.

So, Pack is asking folks to, please, deposit the checks that have been sent out; and encouraging everyone else to take advantage of the West Virginia Cash Now program’s automated system, at WVUnclaimedProperty.gov.

Again, there are nearly $470 million worth of unclaimed property listings on the database. The treasurer’s office is right to want to get that kind of money back out to the people as quickly as possible. Don’t wait — either to deposit a check you already have or to claim money that is rightfully yours.