(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed property department takes in about $300 million each year. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or ever was a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), a chunk of that big pile of California lost assets could easily be yours!

Under the California unclaimed property law, lost money 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 financial assets are passed along to the Department of the Treasury if the rightful owners don’t locate them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in California it is 3 years. These abandoned assets then get moved to the CA unclaimed property div, where they stay in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled California unclaimed cash were recently criticized. It appears that they were all to happy to locate and take hold of the lost assets from the various establishments holding on to them but showed less interest in contacting the actual owners in the California unclaimed money list.

(to be continued)

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