missingmoney.com on the Early Show

By ANNA PRIOR

Wishing for extra cash? You may be entitled to some of the nearly $33 billion in unclaimed property sitting in state governments' coffers.

These are sums that businesses were required to turn over to the states after no activity or contact with the owner after a period of a year or more.

Items can include dividend or payroll checks that haven't been cashed, refunds, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders, insurance payments or refunds, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments and the contents of safe-deposit boxes.

To find out if a state has any of your money, visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' Web site, unclaimed.org. From there, you can access individual states' records or the centralized MissingMoney.com (which includes records from most states, but not New York and California), all free.

You also can search for the names of deceased relatives who may have unclaimed property. If you can prove that you are the legal heir, you can claim those accounts.

If a match pops up, you'll need to fill out a claim form and submit it to the state's claim office along with the proper documentation.

Be patient -- depending on your state and type of claim, it can take a while to be verified and for the state to put your check in the mail.