Kansas has $681M to return to residents & businesses. How to find out if you’re owed
If you want to begin the new year with some extra cash in your pocket, there;s a chance the state of Kansas is holding some for you.
That’s because the office of the state treasurer has more than $681 million in unclaimed property it is charged with returning, and 1 in every 7 Kansans has some to claim.
Unclaimed property includes financial assets that have either not been claimed or have not had any activity from its owner recently. It’s usually in the form of unpaid wages, dormant bank accounts, life insurance policies and more.
“It’s real dollars, and some of it will never be claimed, but we can find homes for a lot of that money,” Kansas Treasurer Steven Johnson told The Wichita Eagle.
Looking at Sedgwick County specifically, county residents, businesses and organizations have $98,067,326.14 in unclaimed property. The state has only returned a bit more than $229,000 to county residents this year, according to the treasurer’s office.
While Johnson said the office reaches out to property owners, it heavily relies on individuals checking for themselves.
“The first effort is, right now, when we get property in, there is an outreach that goes to those folks and a letter is sent,” Johnson said. “One of the problems is a lot of our address data is old, which is why it is unclaimed property. So I’d love to say that everybody gets [the letter], but the reality is they don’t.”
That’s why the unclaimed property website allows Kansas to search for themselves. Here’s how you can see if you have money to claim.
How do I request my unclaimed property in Kansas?
Anyone can see if they have unclaimed property by searching their name or business name on the unclaimed property website. From there, if you see any that belongs to you, you can click “claim.”
After you submit your claim, you will then get an email confirmation, which may include a request for additional information for the office to process your claim.
“They should check their email inbox by the next day and look for something that says your claim [has been] processed, or look for another email which will give you next steps. So they could get those two options,” Johnson said.
You can also check the status of a claim.
“It’s a good practice to capture the claim ID number that will show up as soon as you finish your claim,” Johnson said.
Additionally, you can claim property for relatives, but the process is a bit more complicated, Johnson said.
“It can take up to 90 days, but I’d say most of the time, people would expect their money within about a month or about four weeks,” Johnson said.
In July 2023, Sedgwick County opened a kiosk in its tag office on Douglas. There, you can search in-person for unclaimed property on the state’s website while another monitor scrolls through unclaimed property cases in Sedgwick County.
Unclaimed property is returned to its owner via mail. The average claim amount is $630, and there are no fees to submit claims online.
In 2025, the treasurer’s office has returned nearly $21 million.
