Luck and wealth have always been tethered concepts: lottery tickets, sidewalk cash, good ‘ol fashioned nepotism. For every hard-won, merited tale of wild, financial success, there’s another of sheer dumb luck. Which is to say, hidden wealth does not always take the form of a trust fund or a Fortune 500 company; it can also be found in basements, behind walls, in desk drawers, or even the state treasury. 

Lost and found

Case-in-point is Dave Trachte. In 2006, he reportedly discovered a false wall in his father’s Sandgate, Vt., home — behind which lived none other than a wildly famous, original Norman Rockwell painting. There was, of course, a slight complication: The supposed original already hung in the halls of the Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass. Upon careful verification, it turned out that Trachte’s version was, indeed, the original. As he suspects, his father loaned a copy to the museum and hid the original in the hopes of safeguarding the masterpiece from his wife in the midst of a fraught divorce. That same year, the artwork was auctioned off for $15.4 million. The moral of the story: Check your property for false walls ASAP.   

Alternatively, that very same year — across the pond in England — a man allegedly found a violin tucked away in his mother’s attic. As it turned out, after thorough appraisal, it wasn’t just any old violin; it was the violin played by the Titanic’s band leader, Wallace Hartley, as the ship went down. It had been located in 1912 strapped to Hartley’s body and sent to his wife — and in the following years, had been passed along generationally until it landed with the gentleman in question’s mother. When the instrument was auctioned off, it sold for $1.7 million — a notable sum for a dusty attic artifact. Good enough reason, it seems, to consider overturning your own parent’s cobweb ridden cellar. 

Naturally, occurrences like these are hardly dime-a-dozen (or, rather, $10 million-a-dozen). But in addition to all the rarefied works of art, and historic, legendary artifacts buried amongst us, there are, indeed, more tame and fathomable ways to stumble your way into a bit of financial “luck.” In fact, according to the Massachusetts State Treasury, wealth nearly lost to time is a fairly everyday occurrence — even in smaller, more prosaic formats than, say, an original Rockwell painting. Think: a misplaced stock certificate, an uncashed check, an overpaid medical bill, an old gambling deposit. 

A quick online search

Massachusetts resident Jason Maurice learned about the Massachusetts State Treasury through his daughter, who’d discovered the site in her middle school civics class. “She told me to look up my own name to see if I’d lost any money,” says Maurice. Upon a cursory search, he found that there were, indeed, funds listed in his name — both from an old health savings account he’d held with a previous employer,  and money from a life insurance policy after his parents’ deaths. And while the cash did not make him a mega millionaire, it was enough to cover his daughter’s Invisalign treatments (no small investment!). “I was so relieved to have the extra money for my daughter — and amazed by life’s serendipity,” says Maurice. “I’ve already told some family to check the website out … and they’ve all received checks as well.”

For Erin Fleischer, the entrepreneur behind Massachusetts-based company Knucklebones — an organization designed around curated “play,” hosting specially designed game and activity curricula tailored to everything from children’s birthday parties to corporate retreats — a little long-forgotten money was an equally welcome surprise. After searching her name in the Massachusetts State Treasury, she discovered some leftover funds from a client payment that was never cashed. Instantly, she funnelled the money back into new equipment for the business. “It was like putting on an old jacket and finding money in the pocket. I was thrilled!” says Fleischer. “As a small business owner, everything counts, especially when you don’t expect it.” 

What’s more: Andy “Bub” Chen, another Massachusetts resident, underwent a similar experience when he heard about the State Treasury through his tax accountant. Upon entering his information online, lo and behold, funds awaited him. And while the origin of the extraneous income was unclear to him — “I didn’t even recognize the source. Either I have a murky memory, or a murky past,” he says — the money, itself, was undoubtedly his. 

So, how did Chen use  his newfound cash? With a charitable donation towards Massachusetts nonprofit Wide Horizons for Children — an organization in support of orphan care and infant adoption. “I’ve already told the kids, ‘In the old days, you might stumble across a dime in a pay phone. Now, you can find serious money by checking FindMassMoney on your phone,’” he says. 

Now it’s your turn

Ready to check for unclaimed money yourself? It’s easier than you might think. Just head to FindMassMoney.gov, enter your full name, and see if any listings populate. If so, click “claim” on any item, and it’ll appear in your cart (rinse and repeat, of course, if there are multiple listings). 

Once everything’s squared away, you’ll select “owner” under the claimant relationship heading, enter your information into a handful of simple fields (address, birthdate, etcetera), sign your name digitally, and click submit. Your claim form will arrive instantly via email… and voila! The money is yours.