(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed funds program takes in roughly 300 million dollars each year. What’s it to you? Well, if you or someone you know is or has been a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you knew it or not), a chunk of that big heap of California forgotten funds could easily be yours!

Under the California unclaimed property (or escheat) law, missing money such as forgotten savings and checking accounts, cash and stock dividends, mineral deposits, uncashed checks and money orders, state of California unclaimed tax refunds, salary checks, gift certificates, and other assets are turned over to the Department of the Treasury if the rightful owners don’t locate them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in California it’s three years. These unclaimed monies then get moved to the California unclaimed property division, where they stay in the state’s general fund until they’re returned to their rightful owners. This is where officials working for the state who handled California unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It appears that they were all to happy to track down and collect the lost assets from the establishments holding on to them but but weren’t so keen on locating the actual owners in the California unclaimed money database.

One of the primary reasons for the inability of government to return forgotten money to residents, they claim, is that they can’t be tracked down. The issue is, would would ever think that people like ZsaZsa Gabor, Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Gerri Halliwell, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Sandler and Marlon Brando could be difficult to locate? Their names and the names of a number of other famous people are just some of the names in the California missing money list and yet they have not been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Property Division. They’re all owed checks for forgotten funds by California amounting from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This proves once again California state officials’ interest in keeping this money in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they possibly can. In fact, there was a recent ruling by a federal judge on CA abandoned assets, stating that the state was not trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and has temporarily halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a proper method of returning it to the actual owners was enacted.

(to be continued)

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Treasurer’s office looking to return residents’ money (Northwest Herald)
CRYSTAL LAKE – The office of Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will help area residents claim lost, forgotten and abandoned funds Wednesday at McHenry County College, 8900 Route 14.

Do you have unclaimed cash? – WZZM

Do you have unclaimed cash? WZZM, MI - Aug 10, 2008 Online databases for unclaimed cash are frequently used by individuals hoping to get their hands on unclaimed money, but governments, businesses and even …

100-Year-Old Receives $54 In Unclaimed Money – WHNS

100-Year-Old Receives $54 In Unclaimed Money WHNS, SC - Aug 8, 2008 SPARTANBURG, SC — State Treasurer Converse Chellis personally delivered a check to someone with unclaimed property on Thursday. … 100-Year-Old Receives $54 In Unclaimed Money WHNS all 2 news articles