(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed funds department takes in approximately 300 million dollars annually. Why should you care? Well, if you or anyone you know is or ever was a resident of the Golden State (or had any kind of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), some of that massive pile of CA forgotten funds might very well belong to you!

Under the CA unclaimed property (or escheat) law, missing 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 financial assets are handed over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t locate them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in CA it’s three years. These unclaimed monies then head to the California unclaimed property div, where they stay in the state’s general fund until returned to their rightful owners. This is where state officials who handled CA unclaimed cash were criticized recently. Seems that they have been eager to locate and collect the lost funds from the various establishments holding on to them but but were less than enthusiastic about locating the actual owners in the CA unclaimed funds list.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government give back forgotten money to its owners, they claim, is the fact that they can’t be tracked down. The problem is, would would ever think people like ZsaZsa Gabor, Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Gerri Halliwell, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Sandler and Marlon Brando could be difficult to find? Those names and the names of several other famous people are just a few of the names in the CA missing money list and yet they haven’t heard from the officials in the California Unclaimed Property Division. They’re all owed checks for lost assets by CA amounting from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just proves CA state employees’ interest in holding this cash in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they possibly can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a judge on CA abandoned cash, saying that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to seize it until a better policy of returning it to the rightful owners was adopted.

(to be continued)

–

City Holds Auction for Unclaimed Property – First Coast News
TALLAHASSEE, FL — The state plans to auction more than 40,000 items of unclaimed property later this month. The auction is open to the public, but requires registration and a $100 refundable deposit. The items include jewelry, watches and rare coins …

Treasurer sets up unclaimed property booth at fair (The Clarion-Ledger)
State Treasurer Tate Reeves says his unclaimed property booth will be set up at the Mississippi State Fair.

Unclaimed property booth opens at fair – Jackson Clarion-Ledger
Reeves said he’s trying to return over $45 million to over 300,000 state residents, and he’s hopeful fair-goers will stop by the booth to find out if some that money belongs to them. The Unclaimed Property booth is located in the central bay …

Found: Owners of $147 million – San Marcos Daily Record
Many Texans had more money in their pockets after Texas Comptroller Susan Combs returned a record $147 million in unclaimed property to its owners in fiscal 2009, a 19 percent increase compared to fiscal 2008. Combs has expanded her agency’s …

States seek piece of the action on unclaimed savings bonds – Boston Globe
A half-dozen state governments have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to get that money. They say the Treasury Department has done nothing to find the original bondholders or their descendants, not even sending out a letter when it came …