Wisconsin Houses Billions in Missing Money
Billions of dollars in missing money is housed in the state treasury of Wisconsin, according to the State treasurer of Wisconsin. This property is comprised of unclaimed savings and checking accounts, child support payments, uncashed dividends, stocks, customer deposits or overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, matured life insurance policies, uncashed death benefit checks, and the contents of safety deposit boxes. One reliable place to search for unclaimed property in Wisconsin is at Wisconsin Unclaimed Property Online Search.
Almost one million people have their missing money held up in the state treasury of Wisconsin. By law, a property is considered abandoned when the assets are not returned to the rightful owners within a stipulated period of time. In the state of Wisconsin, the dormancy period is 5 years. In Wisconsin, the only tangible asset covered under the W.I. Unclaimed Property Law are contents of safe deposit boxes. Jewelry, coins, sports cards, pocket watches, and family heirlooms also form a big percentage of the W.I. unclaimed property pool.
“There are a lot of safety deposit boxes that get turned over to us which a lot of people don’t tell their kids, ‘Hey we have a safety deposit box.’ So we actively search for those owners for three years and if we can’t find them we auction off the contents of the boxes. We do that on eBay,” said State Treasurer, Dawn Marie Sass.
According to W.I.’s State Treasurer, in a recent interview during a report by the W.I. Radio Network, they just ran out of space to hold all of the unclaimed properties as they keep piling up year after year.” We do actively search for people for up to three years and then after that time, because we don’t have a lot of space, we do these auctions”, she said in a report recently.
The proceeds from these items are then held on to by the state, like all other unclaimed monetary assets, and are used by the state until the true owners step forward and claim them. “Until we can find an owner or an heir, yes, we do use the profits to support our office…”, says Sass.
