Over $200 Million in Iowa Unclaimed Money
The pile of Iowa unclaimed funds touches an alarming figure of $200 million. The state agencies blame it on the ignorance and lack of initiative of the people as one of the main reasons behind the growing pile.
Iowa unclaimed money or property can be in various forms like idle savings or checking account, cashier’s checks, un-cashed money orders, mineral royalty payments, unclaimed insurance benefits, gifts, court deposits and many more.
As per the state laws, the financial institution that look after these un-used properties have to report if there are no whereabouts of the owner for more than a year or period mentioned by the state itself. The custody is then transferred to the state that faces the burden of locating the rightful owner of the unclaimed funds.
As per the recent figures released by the state treasury of Iowa, the current Iowa unclaimed funds comes to be around $211 million. With only 1 million records in hand, the state also boasts of $12 million returns last year to the rightful owners. The state is making huge efforts in re-uniting the owners with their lost funds by taking initiatives like sending letters to the last known address of the person and publishing details in the newspaper of that state.
The state is taking up the task of educating the masses about the importance of Iowa unclaimed property to the public, and how it can improve their own finances. The state initiatives include press releases, state fairs and other awareness events for the public. The state maintained website also consists of easy to follow instructions for the public so that the application procedure is not challenging for them. As per the state officials managing these unclaimed funds, they are requesting people to search by using the name of every state they have resided in for better results.
