The state treasurer's office says it's uncovered a record amount of unclaimed property to go back into Kentuckians wallets.

And they want citizens to know their name could be on the list.

Our Emily Sisk sat down with the Kentucky State Treasurer, Mark Metcalf, earlier today to learn more.

Joining us now is Kentucky State Treasurer Mark Metcalf.

Thank you so much for being with us.

It's an honor.

Thanks for having me.

Certainly.

So we want to start off with the big news.

Late last month, you announced a historic milestone when it comes to unclaimed property being returned back to the citizens of Kentucky.

Tell us about that news.

Well, first of all, it's a huge milestone for the Treasury and for the state.

In only two years, three months and 17 days, we return over $100 million to Kentuckians.

And it's not a tax refund.

It's not money that was discovered someplace.

And we just decided to put a label on it and say, belongs to, a random individual.

It's money that belongs to the people of Kentucky.

And what we did at the beginning of this administration was find the best ways to get money back to people, the most efficient means available to us.

So we purchased new technology, we developed strategies within the treasury itself, with our employees who've been here some for more than 20 years.

And determined the best way to reach Kentuckians.

And for people who might not be familiar, what is the state's unclaimed property division?

How might property end up there?

And what kind of assets could that include?

Unclaimed property is the deposit your college student forgot to collect when they graduated.

It's a safe deposit box that a parent or grandparent may have forgotten to mention in a will.

It's a security deposit on a, utility bill.

It's a lot of things.

It could be, in fact, unclaimed property associated with an insurance policy such as overpayments and premiums or death benefits that were not claimed at the time.

And the state was settled.

I see.

So if, for example, someone had a deceased relative who lived in Kentucky, maybe they live in another state, but their relative was in Kentucky and there were accounts they didn't know about.

Those are kind of things that would be included in this.

Now, that's a very good example.

And we've had $1.7 million returned to a family outside of Kentucky, when their loved one died.

But that money was here in Kentucky.

They were Kentuckians by birth.

And we returned the money to them.

And for people who were who were watching, how might they know if they can benefit from this?

Is there a way that they can see if they have unclaimed property?

Well, the best way to do it is to access our website.

That's Treasury dot K-Y dot gov.

And look for on the page.

Unclaimed property strike that icon or click the icon, and it will take you to a page where you can actually put down the name of the loved one, or your own name, or your wife or husband's name, and that will lead you to a site that says there is property in their name or there is not.

It's wise of us to remember that there is over $1 billion in unclaimed property that can be accessed by Kentuckians, in fact, $1.1 billion by last count.

And if someone, you know checked that site and saw that they had things to claim, is it do they continue through the website or how would they go about that?

Yeah.

By step process outlined on the website itself.

Contact the Treasury and tell them about your claim.

And we can generally process in less than 30 days.

Most claims.

Well, Treasurer Metcalf, thank you so much for telling us about this development.

We hope that folks can take advantage of it, but thank you for sharing about it.

It's an honor to be here.

Thanks for having me.