(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed property program takes in roughly 300 million dollars every year. Why should you care? 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), part of that massive pile of CA unclaimed money could very well be yours!

Under the CA unclaimed property law, missing money such as forgotten savings and checking accounts, cash and stock dividends, mineral deposits, uncashed checks and money orders, state of California unclaimed tax refunds, salary checks, gift certificates, and other financial assets are turned over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t come for them within a given period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in CA it is 3 years. These forgotten funds then get moved to the CA unclaimed property div, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they are returned to their rightful owners. This is where officials working for the state who handled CA unclaimed cash were criticized recently. It appears that they have been all to happy to locate and collect the lost assets from the various establishments holding them but but weren’t so keen on contacting the owners in the CA unclaimed money list.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government to return forgotten cash to its owners, they claim, is the fact that they can’t be tracked down. The issue is, would would ever think people like Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie ,Marlon Brando, Keanu Reeves, ZsaZsa Gabor and Gerri Halliwell would be difficult to track down? Those names and the names of a number of other celebrities are just some of the names in the CA missing money list and yet they have not heard from the employees in the California Unclaimed Money Division. They are all owed checks for unclaimed money by CA amounting from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This just shows CA state officials’ interest in keeping this cash in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they possibly can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a federal judge on CA abandoned cash, stating that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and has temporarily halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a better policy of returning it to the rightful owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

–

Comptroller: Scammer tried to claim dead Irvington woman’s money (The Journal News)
An upstate woman has been convicted of fraud after trying to get about $1,200 in unclaimed funds from the state by falsely claiming she was the niece of an Irvington woman who had recently died, the state comptroller and a local prosecutor said Friday.

Federal Money to Help People on Welfare Get Jobs Goes Unclaimed – GPB
ATLANTA — Congress has set aside billions of dollars to help states find jobs for people on welfare, but most states including Georgia hasn’t claimed their share. Many states don’t touch federal money intended to help welfare recipients get jobs …

Fla. woman, 85, finds unclaimed $17,500 insurance check from 1978 inside a nightstand drawer (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
LAUDERHILL, Fla. – An 85-year-old South Florida woman who went looking for a photo of her ex-husband says she found a $17,500 insurance claim check from 1978 instead. Barbara Cosgrove found the check, dated Jan. 23, 1978, in an unopened envelope inside a nightstand drawer at her Lauderhill home.

The Investigators: Missing MED money FOUND – WMC-TV
MEMPHIS (WMC TV) – City suits, state pols and hospital ‘crats toured the Regional Medical Center of Memphis Friday to encourage raising money for the cash-strapped, publicly funded hospital. They probably should have toured the Tennessee Treasury …