Unclaimed Property

Hi everyone, I received an email tonight from my state that linked me to a website to see if I had any unclaimed Property. I realized that my wife had an item from Variable Annuity LIC. We realized that her mother had a joint account with her before her death, about 15 years ago. We did not know about this account and the unclaimed property was dated as being reported in 2023.

We were stunned because my wife didn’t receive anything when her mother passed and didn’t think she had taken out a life insurance policy. But when we claimed the money, it was only $255. From my research we are aware that variable annuity plans are riskier because they are put in stocks, but we are wondering if this is definitely the full amount owed to her, or if we should try to figure out where her mother’s policy was taken out and see if this was just interest or something? $255 just seems like such a small amount for life insurance. If anyone can explain how this works in laymen’s years for me I would greatly appreciate it!