(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed money program takes in approximately 300 million dollars annually. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or 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 Cali missing money might very well be yours!

Under the state of California unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets such as forgotten checking and savings accounts, uncashed checks and money orders, mineral deposits, salary checks, cash and stock dividends, state of California unclaimed tax refunds, gift certificates, and other assets are turned over to the Treasury Dept. if the rightful owners don’t locate them within a certain time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in Cali it is three years. These lost assets then go to the California unclaimed property div, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they’re returned to the rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled Cali unclaimed cash were recently criticized. Seems that they were all to happy to locate and take hold of the lost funds from the establishments holding them but but weren’t so keen on tracking down the actual owners in the Cali unclaimed funds records.

One of the primary reasons for the government’s inability give back forgotten cash to residents, they claim, is the fact that they cannot be tracked down. The problem is, who would think that people like ZsaZsa Gabor, Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Gerri Halliwell, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Sandler and Marlon Brando would be hard to find? Their names and the names of several other celebrities are just a few of the names in the Cali missing money list and yet they have not been contacted by the officials at the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They’re all owed checks for unclaimed money by Cali amounting from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just shows Cali state employees’ interest in keeping this money in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they possibly can. In fact, there was recently a ruling by a judge on CA abandoned assets, stating that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to return it to its rightful owners and has temporarily halted the state’s s ability to seize it until a proper method of reuniting it with the rightful owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

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Major Lotto prize still unclaimed (Otago Daily Times)
All but one of five $6.1 million tickets from the weekend’s biggest ever Lotto draw have been claimed. Lotto’s $30m Powerball jackpot was split between five second division winners on Saturday night, after no one won the first division.

Dormant accounts: Get back your unclaimed assets – Telegraph.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk

Dormant accounts: Get back your unclaimed assets Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Oct 9, 2008 There is an estimated £466 million of unclaimed money in dormant NS&I accounts but if you add in other NS&I products – including unclaimed premium bond …

Are you owed any unclaimed funds? (The Facts)
If you’ve cleaned up in the stock market recently, you probably aren’t interested in free money, so you can just turn the page. On the other hand, if, like me, you’ve lost your 401(k), the kids’ college money and that stash you’d been hiding in the freezer to take to Coushatta, then read on.

Court: No interest due for unclaimed goods – San Francisco Chronicle

Court: No interest due for unclaimed goods San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - Oct 16, 2008 (10-15) 17:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Owners of dormant bank accounts and other unclaimed property seized by the state of California have no constitutional …