(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed money program takes in approximately three hundred million dollars every year. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or someone 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), some of that big heap of CA missing money could easily be yours!

Under the California unclaimed funds law, lost money 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 assets are passed along to the Treasury Department if the rightful owners don’t come for them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in CA it’s 3 years. These lost assets then get moved to the California unclaimed property div, where they wait in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled CA unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It seems that they have been all to happy to locate and collect the lost assets from the establishments holding them but but weren’t so keen on contacting the owners in the CA unclaimed property database.

One of the main reasons for the government’s inability give back forgotten cash to residents, they claim, is that they can’t be located. 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 difficult to track down? Their names and the names of a number of other celebrities are just a few of the names in the CA missing money database and yet they have not been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Property Division. They are all owed checks for lost assets by CA ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This just shows CA state officials’ interest in holding this cash in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they can. In fact, there was recently a ruling by a judge on CA abandoned assets, stating that the state was not making enough of an effort to locate the rightful owners and has temporarily halted the state’s s ability to take and hold it until a proper method of returning it to the actual owners was adopted.

(to be continued)

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REGION: $600K in unclaimed money available – North County Times
The county may owe you money and it wants you to claim it. There is nearly $600,000 that the county owes residents in unclaimed property tax refunds, fees and deposits, said county Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister. People have until Oct. 19 to …

850m is locked away in lost or forgotten accounts and bonds – Daily Mirror
Every penny counts in these cash-strapped times – yet millions of people are missing out on money sitting in forgotten or lost bank, building society and NS&I accounts. An estimated £850million is lying unclaimed. The most common reason for an …

Intern digs up thousands for county – Kokomo Perspective
Every year, Howard Superior Court III judge Doug Tate hires summer interns to clear up old records, and every year those interns seem to uncover money that more than pays for their salaries. This summer was no exception. A local high school student …

APPLE TREE AUCTION CENTER 1616 West Church Street, Newark, Ohio 43055 (740) 344-4282 FRIDAY, AUGUST 28th 10:00 AM … (Antiques and the Arts)
TWO-DAY AUCTION UNCLAIMED BANK DEPOSIT BOX CONTENTS 1,600 items FRIDAY Currency: Large size bills, bank currency, gold certificates, confederate money, and uncirculated bills. Gold: Large collection of U.S. gold coins in all denominations, Kruggerands and other foreign gold coins.

Grim economic indicator for Oregon: more unclaimed bodies (The Oregonian)
Oregon has paid for 144 cremations this year, a record number, as people struggle financially