by McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern
December 31, 2025
FRANKFORT — In the year to come, Kentucky Treasurer Mark Metcalf hopes to expand and streamline services in his office that return unclaimed property to Kentuckians.
Metcalf said in a recent interview with the Kentucky Lantern that his office has returned about $80.5 million in unclaimed property since he took office at the start of 2024.
Unclaimed property can take a variety of forms, like paychecks or refunds for insurance or utilities. Metcalf recalled one story of a family living in Austin, Texas, being reconnected with a dormant estate of a deceased relative who lived in Kentucky. The family was unaware of $1.7 million in the account for three years.
“We called the family in Austin and said there’s $1.7 million which was not accounted for when the estate was opened,” Metcalf said.
The treasurer’s office tries to make the process to search for unclaimed property “as user-friendly as possible,” Metcalf said. Kentuckians who want to check if they have any property in the system can go to the treasurer’s website, treasury.ky.gov, and click on “Unclaimed Property” in the menu at the top of the page. Then, they may fill out the search with their information to see if the database has any matches. If they do have a match, then they will be directed to begin the process to reclaim the money.
People can also make nationwide searches for unclaimed property at missingmoney.com.
“It’s their money. We intend to get it back,” Metcalf said. “It is public money in the sense that it’s being managed by us for the public good, but all of these monies that you see in the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund are monies that belong to someone.”
The office is in the first phases of a pilot program to add child support and crime victims’ restitution payments to the system, Metcalf said. Those pilot programs will likely last a year or so before it can be fully implemented.
Metcalf, a Republican who is halfway through his first term as state treasurer, told the Lantern he plans to run for reelection in 2027.
“It’s a great job,” he added. “Serving the people of the commonwealth is the greatest honor extended to me, and we don’t take for granted what we’re doing.”
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.
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