Rhode Island's Unclaimed Property Division processed 10,070 claims, returning more than $12.2 million in property to its rightful owners in the fiscal year ending on June 30, Treasurer Seth Magaziner has announced.

"Our Unclaimed Property team is committed to reuniting Rhode Islanders with their money," said Magaziner. "Most of the time people don't even know they are missing money until they check with our office, so I encourage everyone to check findRImoney.com. It only takes a few minutes and we have money waiting for more than 100,000 Rhode Islanders."

After returning 8,860 claims worth $11.7 million in fiscal year 2016, Treasury's Unclaimed Property program beat that previous year's performance by more than 2,000 claims and more than $500,000 in returns.

Rhode Island Treasury's Unclaimed Property team, led by program director Lammis Vargas, is currently holding over $330 million of unclaimed property waiting to be returned to its rightful owner.

Unclaimed property can include money left in old bank accounts and safe deposit boxes, uncashed paychecks, unused gift certificates, unreturned utility deposits, uncollected insurance payments and forgotten stocks and dividends. Typically, property is turned over to the Treasury if it has been unclaimed by its owner for three years.

However, wages and utility deposits are turned over to the State after one year.

Searching for and claiming property is free, and simple. Visit www.findRImoney.com to begin the process.