(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed money program takes in approximately $300 million annually. What’s it to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or ever was a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), a chunk of that massive pile of Cali missing money might easily be yours!

Under the state of California unclaimed funds 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 financial assets are turned over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t come for them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in Cali it’s three years. These abandoned assets then head to the CA unclaimed property division, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they’re returned to the people they truly belong to. This is where officials working for the state who handled Cali unclaimed cash were criticized recently. Seems that they have been eager to track down and take hold of the lost funds from the establishments holding them but but were less than enthusiastic about contacting the owners in the Cali unclaimed money database.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government to return forgotten money to the people it belongs to, according to the government, is that they can not be tracked down. The problem is, who would think that people like Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie ,Marlon Brando, Keanu Reeves, ZsaZsa Gabor and Gerri Halliwell would be hard to track down? Their names and the names of a number of other famous people are just a few of the names in the Cali missing money database but they have never heard from the officials at the California Unclaimed Money Division. They are all owed checks for unclaimed money by Cali amounting from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This just shows Cali state employees’ interest in keeping this cash in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a judge on CA abandoned assets, stating that the state wasn’t making enough of an effort to locate the rightful owners and has temporarily halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a new policy of returning it to the rightful owners was enacted.

(to be continued)

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Chicago seeks deal with state after city keeps unclaimed property – Chicago Tribune

Chicago seeks deal with state after city keeps unclaimed property Chicago Tribune, United States - Aug 11, 2008 The unclaimed property comes in a variety of forms, from uncollected city Board of Education paychecks and overpaid parking tickets to money confiscated by …

Unclaimed bodies a problem in Kane County (Daily Herald)
Kane County officials say a dramatic increase in the number of unclaimed bodies in their morgue may be due to tough economic times.

Getting your unclaimed funds: The Real Deal (WSYR 9 Syracuse)
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Unclaimed property booth to be at Fair (Huron Plainsman)
South Dakotans attending the State Fair are encouraged to stop at the state’s Unclaimed Property booth to check if they are owed money.