(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed property department takes in about three hundred million dollars annually. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or ever was a resident of the Golden State (or had any kind of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), some of that big heap of CA lost assets could very well belong to you!

Under the state of California unclaimed funds law, abandoned assets like 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 handed over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t come for them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in CA it is 3 years. These abandoned assets then get moved to the CA unclaimed property div, where they sit in the state’s general fund until returned to the people they truly belong to. This is where state employees who handled CA unclaimed cash were criticized recently. It seems that they have been eager to locate and collect the lost assets from the various establishments holding them but but were less than enthusiastic about locating the owners in the CA unclaimed property records.

One of the main reasons for the government’s inability give back forgotten money to the people it belongs to, they claim, is that they cannot be tracked down. The issue is, who would think people like Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie ,Marlon Brando, Keanu Reeves, ZsaZsa Gabor and Gerri Halliwell could be hard to locate? Their names and the names of a number of other celebrities are just some of the names in the CA missing money database but they haven’t heard from the officials in the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They’re all owed checks for forgotten funds by CA amounting from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This proves once again CA state officials’ interest in holding this money in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficit for as long as they possibly can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a judge on CA abandoned money, stating that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a proper method of reuniting it with the actual owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

–

State’s Dash for Cash tracks lost money (Lake County News-Sun)
Mary Mateja of Antioch was skeptical when she first learned the state was holding money for her. When her nephew found her name listed on the Cash Dash Web site, she wasn’t quite ready to leap into action to claim her money.

Unclaimed bodies a problem in Kane County (Daily Herald)
In tough economic times some families may find even the cost of a funeral is just too much to pay. As a result, Kane County officials are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of unclaimed bodies in their morgue.

State's Dash for Cash tracks lost money – Waukegan News Sun

State's Dash for Cash tracks lost money Waukegan News Sun, IL - 12 hours ago For a complete list of people with unclaimed money, read the Weekend Edition of the Lake County News-Sun. Names are published every August and February. …

Lots of property left to be claimed here in Butler County (Greenville Advocate)
Think there’s money somewhere with your name on it? You just might be right. Treasurer Kay Ivey announced Tuesday that over 1,900 listings with Butler County addresses are currently on the state’s unclaimed property database.

Unclaimed bodies a problem in Kane County – Chicago Daily Herald

Unclaimed bodies a problem in Kane County Chicago Daily Herald, IL - 2 hours ago What happens to those unclaimed bodies depends on how much money the coroner's office can locate to help handle the remains. "We fully believe every body is …