(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed money department takes in about three hundred million dollars annually. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or someone you know is or has been a resident of the Golden State (or had any kind of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), a chunk of that massive pile of CA forgotten funds might easily belong to you!

Under the CA unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets like 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 assets are handed over to the Department of the Treasury if the rightful owners don’t come for them within a certain time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in CA it’s 3 years. These abandoned assets then go to the CA unclaimed property div, where they stay in the state’s general fund until they are returned to their rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled CA unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It seems that they have been eager to locate and collect the lost assets from the establishments holding them but but were less than enthusiastic about tracking down the owners in the CA unclaimed property records.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government to return forgotten money to its owners, according to the government, is the fact that they can’t be tracked down. The issue is, would would ever think people like Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie ,Marlon Brando, Keanu Reeves, ZsaZsa Gabor and Gerri Halliwell could be difficult to find? Those names and the names of several other celebrities are just some of the names in the CA missing money database but they have not been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Money Division. They’re all owed checks for unclaimed money by CA ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This proves once again CA state employees’ interest in holding this cash in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they can. In fact, there was a recent ruling by a federal 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 seize it until a new policy of reuniting it with the rightful owners was adopted.

(to be continued)

–

Money, property part of annual auction – Columbus Telegram
LINCOLN — The annual Internet auction of Nebraska unclaimed property begins today. About 200 items left in unclaimed safe deposit boxes, including gold and silver coins, Confederate currency, diamond jewelry and Husker memorabilia, will be auctioned …

Tenn. Morgues Filled With Unclaimed Bodies – Wbaltv.com
In the past year, the number of unclaimed bodies in Nashville morgues has nearly doubled because families can’t scrape together the money to bury them. The Metro burial assistance program steps in when that happens, but now that program has been …

NSSF calls on pensioners to collect unclaimed assets – East African Standard
To reduce the backlog of unclaimed assets it is holding, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has called on pensioners yet to collect their retirement benefits to do so. The Fund becomes one of the few institutions holding enormous amounts in …

Clark Howard: Unclaimed Property Equals Real Deals For You – WSB-TV Atlanta
ATLANTA — If you’ve been a victim of theft, there’s a chance you can find your things online for sale. That’s because the Atlanta Police Department, and many other departments across the country, have a new way of auctioning off unclaimed …

5 million Lotto win left unclaimed – The Independent
A city was bracing itself for a frenzy of back-of-the-sofa searching and sock drawer ransacking today after details were revealed of an unclaimed £5 million lottery prize. National Lottery operator Camelot said the £4,908,817 Lotto jackpot from …