Are you owed money from a forgotten bank account?

Las Vegas resident Michael Catania was surprised when he plugged his name into MissingMoney.com , a website for unclaimed-property searches, and learned that Massachusetts was holding money for him from a forgotten bank certificate of deposit.

The adjunct music professor had lived in four states over the past decade, including Massachusetts, where he had opened the $1,500 CD that had long since matured.

According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, a group of state officers, nearly $42 billion is sitting in state coffers, having come from financial institutions and other businesses with dormant accounts.

In addition to old bank accounts, the property often is from unclaimed insurance policies, uncashed paychecks and abandoned safe-deposit boxes.

MissingMoney.com has its own nationwide search function, but as its database is sometimes incomplete, you may get more thorough results by also searching the individual states' sites.

—If you're an heir, you may need to provide a copy of the account owner's death certificate and proof the property should go to you.

By law, organizations that hold money for account holders must make reasonable efforts to contact the owners, says Toni Nuernberg, executive director of the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization, a trade group that helps holders of unclaimed property comply with state regulations.