The Tennessee Department of the Treasury is responsible for handling unclaimed property. Various businesses and other entities transfer unclaimed property to the Department of the Treasury because the last known address of the owner on file was in Tennessee. Each year, tons of valuable assets and possessions in the form of bank accounts, stocks, bonds and checks are handed over to the Department of the Treasury because the owners could not be found.
You can search for unclaimed property by the last name or by the business name of the owner. The Department of the Treasury site also offers instructions on how to go about claiming property that you believe belongs to you. The most important part of the process is proving that you are the legal owner of the assets. This is typically achieved through photo identification and proof of the last known address or social security number.
Companies or entities that are looking to report property as unclaimed and transfer it to the State of Tennessee will need to submit it via the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) electronic format and will need to encrypt it using the required encryption method. This is designed to make reporting the unclaimed property as simple and safe as possible.