(Part 1 of 2)

The state of California’s unclaimed property program takes in about $300 million every year. What’s it to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or was a resident of the Golden State (or had any kind of business dealings, whether you were aware of it or not), part of that massive pile of Cali missing money might easily be yours!

Under the state of California unclaimed property (or escheat) 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 assets are handed over to the Treasury Department if the rightful owners don’t locate them within a certain time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in Cali it’s 3 years. These forgotten funds then get moved to the California unclaimed property division, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled Cali unclaimed cash were criticized recently. Seems that they have been eager to track down and collect the lost funds from the establishments holding them but but weren’t so keen on locating the actual owners in the Cali unclaimed funds list.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government give back forgotten money to the people it belongs to, they say, 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 could be hard to locate? Their names and the names of a number of other famous people are just a few of the names in the Cali missing money database but they have never heard from the employees in the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They are all owed checks for unclaimed money by Cali ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This just proves Cali state officials’ interest in keeping this money in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they can. As a matter of fact, there was recently a ruling by a judge on CA abandoned money, stating that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a new policy of reuniting it with the actual owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

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IRS holding $1.3B in unclaimed refunds – msnbc.com
Forget about your 2009 tax return for a minute. If you didn’t file one for 2006, you might be missing out on some money from back then. But you’re quickly running out of time to claim it. Three years ago, more than 1.4 million individuals apparently …

IRS holding $1.3B in unclaimed refunds
If you didn’t file a tax return for 2006, you might be missing out on money. But you’re running out of time to claim it. In total, more than $1.3 billion worth of refunds from 2006 is still sitting in the IRS account.

Education fund hits the jackpot – RichmondBizSense
According to Virginia Lottery spokesperson John Hagerty, tickets often go unclaimed, especially those for less money, such as $2 or $3. However, he also said that a lot of people don’t know the exact rules of playing the lottery, especially when …

Comptroller wants to disburse unclaimed cash – Houston Community Newspapers
Sadler said the county receives unclaimed cash on a regular basis, and the money is placed in its contingency account. “Cities, counties and school districts face challenges in this tough economy,” Combs said. “Our office has expanded its …