Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt gets makeover, moves to new website

The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt, Arkansas’ unclaimed property program, is getting a facelift.

Auditor of State Dennis Milligan announced Thursday (Feb. 1) that moving the website to a .gov address will instill more public confidence.

“Today, on National Unclaimed Property Day, I am announcing that we are moving our website from claimitAR.com to claimitAR.gov,” Milligan said. “We believe this will add a layer of comfort and legitimacy for Arkansans when they are filing their claims.”

The claims process includes submitting one’s Social Security number, and many people have expressed concern over the current site’s legitimacy, he added.

“We’ve heard from many Arkansans who are hesitant to provide sensitive information on the Internet,” Milligan said. “So we get a lot of ‘Is this legitimate?’ or ‘Is this a scam?’ questions. By changing our website URL to end in ‘.gov,’ we hope to instill more trust in our program while also keeping with the current brand.”

Arkansas has more than 1 million unclaimed properties, valued at more than $400 million.

Unclaimed property happens when a holder of an account is unable to locate the account’s owner. This often happens as a result of people moving or when a person dies, resulting in the property being deemed “abandoned.” The properties – which range from cash, securities, mineral proceeds or tangible items – are then remitted to the Auditor of State’s office. The Auditor is required by law to attempt to reunite citizens with their unclaimed property.

“Unclaimed property can range from unreimbursed utility deposits, to life insurance proceeds, to stock or mutual fund shares, or even tangible items left behind in safe deposit boxes. The majority of properties that we currently hold are cash-related,” Milligan said.

“Nearly 33 million people nationally, or one in seven, have unclaimed property. That percentage is even higher in Arkansas, with one and four Arkansans having money owed to them,” he added.

To search the state’s unclaimed property database, people may visit the new website at www.claimitAR.gov. Searching is free and the state does not charge citizens to file their claims.

The national unclaimed property database can be found at MissingMoney.com.