(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed funds department takes in about 300 million dollars each year. What’s it to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or 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 big heap of California unclaimed money might easily belong to you!

Under the state of California unclaimed funds law, abandoned assets 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 handed over to the Department of the Treasury if the rightful owners don’t locate them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in California it’s three years. These abandoned assets then get moved to the CA unclaimed property division, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the people they truly belong to. This is where officials working for the state in-charge of the California unclaimed cash were recently criticized. Seems that they were all to happy to locate and take hold of the lost funds from the various establishments holding them but but were less than enthusiastic about contacting the owners in the California unclaimed property database.

(to be continued)

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Wisconsin Residents Owed More Than $37.5 Million in Unclaimed Property (WSAW Wausau)
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