JEFFERSON, Ohio — It is one of the common complaints whenever News 5 reports on the Ohio Division of Unclaimed Funds: the layers of verification required to reunite with your money.
Scott Yamamoto, the Ashtabula County Auditor, told News 5 he spent 11 months trying to recover $9,826.84 owed to the county — a process he says was far more complicated than it needed to be.
"They wanted me to prove I was who I was," he explained. "'Ok, I'll send you my commission signed by the governor that also had the county's address on it.'"
In addition, Yamamoto was asked to submit his driver's license, a copy of his county ID, the county's EIN number, his oath of office, a W-9 IRS form, a notarized signature on a claim form, and a utility bill for the county.
"The amount of information I had to provide—it seemed a little over the top," Yamamoto said.
The claim involved 24 separate items, some dating back more than 30 years.
"Every penny makes a difference to the county in the market that we're in," Yamamoto said. "The expenses being what they are, and the revenues don't keep up with the cost of doing business."
Last year, News 5 reported that fire departments struggled to be reunited with their money, despite being easily identifiable and, in some cases, still at the same address.
Watch that story here:
That led to one rural department eventually reuniting with about $20,000 in unclaimed funds.
Watch that story here:
Ohio law requires that a claim be filed and all paperwork completed before the state can issue payment.
"We always want to make sure we’re paying the right person," Superintendent Akil Hardy said in an interview with News 5 in 2025. "Because of our laws, we’re not at the point where we can just send them a check."
However, in other states, that’s already happening.
Right now, at least 20 states are already or are set to begin automatically paying out funds in some capacity, even without filing a claim.
In some cases, automatic disbursements are below a certain amount, easily identifiable, or disbursed in batches throughout the year.
In California, they are already proactively issuing checks for municipalities and state agencies.
Yamamoto believes Ohio should follow suit.
"Yes - absolutely it should be [the next state to allow this] because this is taxpayer money," Yamamoto said. "We can't have that money just sitting out in limbo forever."
Backlog continues to process unclaimed funds following Browns Stadium announcement
Language tucked into Ohio's two-year operating budget last year changed the way the state safeguards unclaimed funds, sparking a surge in claims.
Previously, the state held missing money in perpetuity, while using some of it to plug budget holes and give short-term loans to affordable-housing developers — in the same way banks use your deposits to make loans, while keeping a certain amount of cash on hand.
Going forward, people will have only a decade to file claims. After that, the unclaimed funds, along with any interest earned, will become the state's property.
Lawmakers directed the commerce department to withdraw funds from the unclaimed funds pool twice a year, starting on Jan. 1, 2026, and to deposit those funds into a new fund for sports and cultural facility grants. The first deposit into that fund would have been $1 billion, including the $600 million earmarked for the Browns.
The budget, approved by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine last year, creates a grace period for people whose money gets taken by the state. They'll still be able to file claims through Jan. 1, 2036. But nothing has changed yet. Ohioans with unclaimed funds challenged the state's move in court.
As part of that law, a media campaign has begun to raise awareness on the 10-year clock to file a claim.
The Browns have not yet received the $600 million in unclaimed funds from the state. A magistrate in Columbus blocked the state from taking ownership of roughly $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion in unclaimed funds while a lawsuit plays out.
In the year following the Browns' announcement, Ohioans filed more than a million claims for their unclaimed funds.
That's double the number of claims the Division of Unclaimed Funds received in the year prior.
As a result, the Division of Unclaimed Funds told News 5 on June 12 that it is still processing claims submitted in the second half of last year.
To address the backlog, the Division of Unclaimed Funds increased its full-time staff from 51 to 59 over the past year and is currently hiring 12 part-time staffers to handle claims.
However, even as the Division of Unclaimed Funds deals with a record number of claims filed following the Browns' announcement, they are also on track to pay out more claims than ever before.
For perspective, the division paid out 26,420 claims in all of 2024. In the year since the Browns stadium announcement (June 1, 2025 - June 7, 2026), it has paid out 187,522 claims totaling $138,152,886.
That's a result of major changes to the website and the overhauling of their processing system in early 2025, leading to much faster payouts for about 20% of claims.
RELATED: Ohio makes it easier and faster to get unclaimed funds back
"We have made significant modifications to our website and the underlying technology behind the website," Akil Hardy, superintendent of Ohio's Division of Unclaimed Funds, told News 5 last year. "The underlying technology is what's most critical because it allows the information provided by the claimant (to be) autonomously validated so that we can more efficiently process that claim. In the past, all claims would get processed between let's say 90 to 100 days. Right now, some people are getting their funds in two weeks."
The department also raised the threshold for when someone needs a notary to sign off on their documents from $1,000 to $3,000.
To check for unclaimed funds, visit unclaimedfunds.ohio.gov.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
