Wisconsin Has High Hopes for Returning Unclaimed Money
Wisconsin’s unclaimed money pool is growing by the minute. Wisconsin is facing the problem of unclaimed money and is actively creating awareness campaigns to return unclaimed money to the actual recipients.
According to a recent report, the State Treasury currently holds $300 million dollars in unclaimed money and property belonging to more than one million individuals and businesses . One of the major regions of unclaimed money is Brown County where millions are still being held.
According to Wisconsin’s unclaimed money regulations, the Office of the State Treasurer is required to maintain custody and records for all property received under the provisions of the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. Wisconsin’s unclaimed property or money could be in the form of funds from a dormant checking and savings accounts, un-cashed money orders, cashiers checks, mineral royalty payments, safe deposit box contents, unused gift certificates, unclaimed insurance benefits, lost cash dividends, stock, found utility deposits, unclaimed security deposits, and court deposits.
The most important, and first task, in the process of finding unclaimed money (Wisconsin Unclaimed Money), is to identify that your unclaimed funds are with the WI state treasury. Once you are done with that and you have found your name on the list or you are the legal heir to anyone on the list, you are entitled to the unclaimed property. With just a couple of phone calls, you might just be sure of finding your Wisconsin unclaimed money.
Wisconsin has set the escheatment period to a very high level: 5 years. If there is no inquiry for 5 years, the funds are considered abandoned and liable to be transferred to the Wisconsin unclaimed money division of the State treasury. A holder (of the unclaimed funds or property) could be a savings institution, credit union bank, insurance company or utility company. The law was enacted to protect unclaimed property and return it to its rightful owners or their heirs.
If the efforts to trace out the owners are unsuccessful, they are to forward the names and last known addresses of the owners to the State Treasurer. The Treasurer, who is the custodian of the Wisconsin unclaimed property, then publishes these names in regional advertisements throughout the State.
The State Treasurer will provide each county’s main public library with a list of unclaimed property owners, except for the Milwaukee County/City public library, which has an internet link to the State Treasurer’s website. Chapter 177 Wis. Stats. provides for the State Treasurer to administer the law.
