(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed property department takes in roughly three hundred million dollars each year. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or someone you know is or was 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 Cali lost assets could easily belong to you!

Under the California unclaimed funds law, lost 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 passed along to the Department of the Treasury if their owners don’t locate them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in Cali it is three years. These forgotten funds then get moved to the CA unclaimed property division, where they stay in the state’s general fund until returned to the people they truly belong to. This is where state employees in-charge of the Cali unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It appears that they have been eager to locate and collect the lost assets from the establishments holding them but showed less interest in contacting the owners in the Cali unclaimed funds records.

(to be continued)

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