(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed property program takes in about 300 million dollars annually. What’s it 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 knew it or not), part of that massive pile of CA unclaimed money could very well belong to you!

Under the CA unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets such as 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 handed over to the Treasury Dept. 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 3 years. These forgotten funds then get moved to the CA unclaimed property div, where they stay in the state’s general fund until they’re returned to the rightful owners. This is where officials working for the state in-charge of the CA unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It appears that they were all to happy to track down and take hold of the lost funds from the establishments holding them but but weren’t so keen on 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 residents, they claim, is that they cannot be tracked down. The problem is, would would ever 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 difficult to find? Those names and the names of a number of other famous people are just some of the names in the CA missing money database and yet they have never been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Money Division. They’re all owed checks for lost assets 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 money 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 cash, saying that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to return it to its rightful owners and has temporarily halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a better policy of reuniting it with the actual owners was adopted.

(to be continued)

–

Millions in New York Unclaimed Money Up for Grabs. – PRLog (free press release)
PRLog (Press Release) – Oct 22, 2009 – New York, NY – New York unclaimed money has been adding up in the vaults of the State controller’s office for years now. At last estimate almost $10 billion of unclaimed cash is waiting to be reclaimed. The …

States suing federal government for unclaimed war bonds – Chicago Tribune
Reporting from Washingtonwashington – Nearly 70 years ago, the federal government began issuing hundreds of billions of dollars in savings bonds to finance the greatest war effort in the nation’s history, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt buying …

State officials want residents to collect millions in unclaimed property (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Forgotten payroll checks, court-ordered refunds, inheritances, utility deposits and more waiting for their owners

Boca Raton Woman Gets $2,000 In ‘Unclaimed Money’ (WPBF Palm Beach)
A Boca Raton woman is $2,000 richer after a call from the Bureau of Unclaimed Property.