Connecticut lawmakers passed a bill in the final days the legislative session that will curtail how much money can be automatically returned to people through the state’s unclaimed property program, which sweeps up millions of dollars in uncashed checks, misplaced refunds and long-ignored insurance policies every year.

The Connecticut Treasurer’s office has had the power to automatically issue checks to anyone who is owed a piece of unclaimed property valued at less than $2,500 — as long as state officials could verify the owner’s identity.

But the new legislation, which was pushed by Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell, could soon ensure that any unclaimed property valued at less than $50 will not qualify for those automatic payments.

Members of the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of that legal change, despite protests from a small group of lawmakers and advocates who complained that the bill will result in the state keeping more people’s money.

Ron Lizzi, a Connecticut resident who has waged a campaign to reform unclaimed property programs across the country, told lawmakers that the changes the treasurer was asking for were a move in the wrong direction.

“The provision is contrary to the mission of returning unclaimed money — it’s a step backwards,” Lizzi wrote in testimony that he submitted to the legislature.

Meanwhile, Russell, who is serving his first term as state Treasurer, told lawmakers that they should limit the automatic payments in order to reduce “waste” and relieve his office of the “administrative burden” of automatically returning smaller assets to their owners.

It’s unclear why the legislative change was necessary, however, since Russell acknowledged that his office had already chosen not to issue automatic payments to people with property valued below $50.

“Establishing this threshold avoids the cost of processing very small transactions that can exceed the value of the payment itself, allowing the program to focus its resources on returning meaningful amounts of property to Connecticut residents,” Russell told lawmakers. “This is currently our operational standard, and we want the statute to
reflect it as codified practice.”

In response to questions from the Connecticut Mirror, the treasurer’s office said it only began issuing automatic payments to people in 2025. And he said that since that time, the office has returned over $14.5 million to more than 45,000 owners — nearly $1 million per month.

None of those automatic payments have been for property that is worth less than $50, however.

The Treasurer’s office told the Connecticut Mirror that each automatic payment requires state employees to match up data, mail notices and, in some cases, can require checks to be cancelled if they are not cashed. All of that costs money, the office said.

The treasurer’s office also emphasized that anyone with unclaimed property valued below $50 can still recover their money through the CT Big List, the state website where the treasurer lists every piece of unclaimed property it seized from banks, insurance companies and other businesses.

The treasurer’s use of automatic payments was one of the biggest reforms enacted after the Connecticut Mirror published an investigation in 2022 that highlighted the state’s spotty track record in returning millions of dollars in unclaimed property to its rightful owners.

The CT Mirror’s coverage showed how the state had returned less than 37% of the unclaimed property that it swept up over a 20 year period. It also highlighted how the Treasurer’s office had failed to disclose millions of checks, refunds and other assets that were valued under $50 on the CT Big List, making it next to impossible for people to recognize that the state was in possession of their money.

That reporting prompted lawmakers to make several significant improvements to how the state managed the unclaimed property program.

They dropped the requirement that every claim submitted to the Treasurer’s office had to be notarized. And they made sure all of the unclaimed property was listed on the CT Big List. They also introduced automatic payments for any property valued below $2,500.

Those changes helped the Treasurer’s office to dramatically increase the amount of unclaimed property that has been returned to its owners in recent years. More than 58,000 people on average have been reunited with their unclaimed property over each of the past three years, and the treasurer’s office has broken its record every year for the amount of money returned.

Even so, data collected by the Treasurer’s office shows that, over that time period, the amount of money listed on the CT Big List continued to swell from $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion.

The state is legally required to pay out claims to anyone who can prove they are the rightful owner of part of that money. But until those owners come forward, state lawmakers use the money to pay for Connecticut’s public campaign system and to buoy the state budget.

Lawmakers like Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, argued this session that the Treasurer’s office should be doing more to return unclaimed property to people, not less.

“My goal would be to see the maximum amount of money that belongs to the people of Connecticut returned to them, without them having to do a bunch of work,” Sampson said. “If the state is holding this money and they know who it belongs to, they should just send it.”

Sampson tried to amend the bill on the Senate floor to enable automatic payments for any unclaimed property valued between $10 and $5,000, but that proposal was voted down along party lines.

The treasurer’s office said expanding automatic payments to more unclaimed property could be something they explore in the future. But they argued that the program was still maturing.

Lizzi, who is constantly advocating on the unclaimed property program, tried to push back against the treasurer’s assertion that cutting checks to people for less than $50 was a waste of resources. He said it might not make sense to mail checks to people for a couple cents, but he argued the $50 threshold was too high.

Lizzi also pointed out that the unclaimed property program is still a financial boon for the state, even with the money the treasurer’s office spent issuing checks to people.

In fiscal year 2025, for instance, records show the treasurer swept up more than $242 million but returned just under half that amount to residents. That meant the state could spend $14.8 million to fund state lawmakers political campaigns and still have more than $100 million left over to boost the state budget.

“The state should treat unclaimed money as a problem to solve, but it instead treats that money as painless revenue,” Lizzi told the CT Mirror. “The state wants that money.  That’s why Connecticut has $1.7 billion in unclaimed money.”