(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed property department takes in about 300 million dollars every year. What’s it 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 knew it or not), part of that big pile of CA lost assets might very well be yours!

Under the CA unclaimed funds 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 handed over to the Treasury Dept. if their owners don’t locate them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in CA it’s 3 years. These forgotten funds then head to the CA unclaimed property div, where they wait in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the rightful owners. This is where state officials who handled CA unclaimed cash were recently criticized. Seems that they have been all to happy to locate and take hold of the lost funds from the various establishments holding on to them but but weren’t so keen on tracking down the owners in the CA unclaimed property database.

(to be continued)

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