Cash Unclaimed Media Room

Banks are a large cause for unclaimed money. Washington Mutual bank, which stopped its operation in 2008, has reported to have handed over almost $252 million to the different state treasuries. New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. purchased the bank’s assets after its failure and passed inactive accounts, which had no deposits or withdrawals for three years, to the (FDIC) Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Reliable resources at FDIC have revealed that FDIC had mailed claim forms to the last known addresses of any account holder with more than $75 due. The names of persons who had at least $25 in accounts had their names posted online. J.P Morgan Chase had sent out all the notification letters to the owners of unclaimed accounts intimating them of the impending transfer of funds to FDIC.

Unclaimed property is at an all-time high in the state of Florida. Currently, the Chief Financial Officer of Florida is in possession of almost $1 billion of unclaimed property accounts. These unclaimed property accounts come mostly from dormant accounts in financial institutions, insurance and utility companies, and, securities and trust holdings. In addition to money and securities, unclaimed property includes tangible property such as watches, jewelry, coins, currency, stamps, historical items and other miscellaneous articles from abandoned safe deposit boxes.

State treasuries across the U.S. are searching for the owners of unclaimed funds, but with limited success. It is estimated that almost $40 billion in unclaimed cash and property is lying in various state treasuries. While millions are being added to this pile every month, the majority of U.S. residents are still unaware of the location of the lost funds, along with the process of recovery.