(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed property department takes in approximately $300 million every year. What’s it to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or has been a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), part of that big pile of California unclaimed money could very well belong to you!

Under the CA unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets like 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 financial assets are passed along to the Department of the Treasury if the rightful owners don’t come for them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in California it is three years. These forgotten funds then head to the California unclaimed property division, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they are returned to their rightful owners. This is where state officials in-charge of the California unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It seems that they were eager to track down and take hold of the lost assets from the various establishments holding on to them but showed less interest in contacting the owners in the California unclaimed funds list.

One of the primary reasons for the inability of government to return forgotten cash to residents, they claim, is that they can’t be located. The problem is, who would think 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 famous people are just some of the names in the California missing money database and yet they have never been contacted by the employees in the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They’re all owed checks for unclaimed money by California ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just proves California state employees’ interest in keeping this cash in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they can. As a matter of fact, there was recently a ruling by a judge on CA abandoned assets, stating that the state was not doing enough to return it to its rightful owners and has temporarily halted the state’s s ability to take and hold it until a new policy of reuniting it with the actual owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

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Unclaimed $200,000 Powerball prize to expire – Arizona Business Gazette
Someone will lose a $200,000 lottery prize if they don’t claim it soon. It’s a single Powerball ticket from the Feb. 18 drawing that was sold at the gas station of the Safeway store at 5810 W. Thunderbird Road in Glendale. The money has to be claimed …

State treasurer’s office seeks owners of lost property (Herald & Review)
By H&R staff DECATUR – Cash Dash, an Illinois Treasurer’s Office program designed to get unclaimed property back in the hands of its owners, is ready to go public with a list of people it wants to pay back after all these years.

Treasurer Giannoulias says join the Cash Dash crowd – Lincoln Daily News
The treasurer’s office is publishing the names of about 7,000 residents and businesses in central Illinois county newspapers during the week of Aug. 16. All told, these lucky residents are owed $3.5 million in “free” cash. “If your name is on the …

State treasurer’s office seeks owners of lost property – Herald & Review
DECATUR – Cash Dash, an Illinois Treasurer’s Office program designed to get unclaimed property back in the hands of its owners, is ready to go public with a list of people it wants to pay back after all these years. A treasurer’s spokeswoman said …

State Lottery Winners Have Six Months Less To Pick Up Winnings (Hartford Courant)
From now on, Connecticut Lottery winners will have six months less time to claim their prizes , a change expected to reap $6.1 million in unclaimed prize money for the cash-starved state government during the first year.