(Part 2 of 2)

One of the primary reasons for the government’s inability give back forgotten money to its owners, they claim, is that they can not be tracked down. The issue is, who would think that people like Angelina Jolie, ZsaZsa Gabor, Gerri Halliwell, Victoria Beckham, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Marlon Brando and Jennifer Lopez would be hard to locate? Their names and the names of a number of other famous people are some of the names in the CA missing money list and yet they have not been contacted by the officials at the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They’re all owed checks for forgotten funds by CA ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just proves CA state officials’ interest in holding this money in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficit for as long as they possibly can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a federal judge on CA abandoned money, saying that the state wasn’t doing enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the state’s s ability to take and hold it until a new policy of returning it to the rightful owners has been adopted.

The total amount of unclaimed money in CA averages $5 billion annually – imagine the amount of interest that accrues for the state! Bill Palmer, an attorney in Sacramento who has represented many cases involving California unclaimed property, said the state’s department was supposed to be a lost and found of sorts for Californians. Instead, it was turned into a profit earning ‘business’ in the past few years.

The ban on the taking of property by CA has now been removed and the new California State Controller, John Chiang, is making extra efforts in the form of widespread reforms in improving how his office deals with CA unclaimed money. There’s still a dire need though for residents of California and the other 49 states across the U.S. to learn about the presence of these properties and on how to perform a thorough search for them and take back what belongs to them.

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Hunt for your own lost treasure; don’t pay for it – Houston Community Newspapers
I often receive calls or e-mails asking about the validity of different offers received by mail, phone or e-mail. Seldom am I asked about the same offer more than once in the same week. My suspicion quickly grew when in just the last week, I was …

State treasurer to return lost money – Tulsa World
OKLAHOMA CITY — State Treasurer Scott Meacham is going to the Oklahoma State Fair to help Oklahomans claim $300 million in lost money. Meacham administers Oklahoma’s unclaimed property program. And this will mark the ninth consecutive year his …

Boldfacers on list for abandoned cash – Boston Herald
And the MIT Sloan School of Management , which should know better, is owed $200 from Bain & Company . To think how the business school could have put that money to work! The treasurer’s fall unclaimed money list, which appears in the Boston Herald …

Nevada nets $50 million from unclaimed property – MSN Money
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – Nevada’s coffers are $50 million richer because of proceeds from unclaimed property. State Treasure Kate Marshall says the amount is $12 million, or 23 percent, more than anticipated this spring by the Economic Forum. The …

Unclaimed funds in state have reached $27 million – Dickinson Press & Advertiser
Forgotten and missing funds such as uncashed paychecks, dormant bank accounts, and stocks and bonds containing anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars could be waiting for hundreds of area residents. Since 1975, North Dakota has been accumulating …