Cash Unclaimed Media Room

The pile of unclaimed money holed up with the government and state treasuries is growing at a rapid pace. Unclaimed money pile is major source of concern for state treasuries as well as federal agencies.
The growth of unclaimed funds across all the state treasuries has been exponential to say the least.

While the larger states were already grappling with the onslaught of unclaimed funds, even the smaller states and financial organizations like banks and insurance companies are also reporting large volumes of abandoned and unclaimed funds. Larger states, like New York and California, are facing the challenge of locating the owners of huge unclaimed money chunks; $10 billion and $6 billion respectively. A recent Press Release is about half a million dollars in unclaimed money from former Washington Mutual Bank customers in Wisconsin is waiting to be claimed.

Federal and State governments are still sitting on a pile of unclaimed cash which has been rising steadily with each passing month. Nearly all the states continue to report huge additions to this unclaimed cash vault, but the biggest recipients of unaccounted cash have been the three major states: New York, California, and Texas. California is reporting unclaimed money to the tune of $5.7 Billion and New York’s pile of unclaimed money has swelled up to $9.9 billion.

According to a recent estimate by National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), almost $40 billion in unclaimed cash and property is sitting in state treasuries and other agencies just waiting to be claimed, and the figures are going up every year.

The total unclaimed money count across the country is in the multi-billions. According to reliable reports, over 1 million claims were paid out by U.S. states, amounting to $1.2 billion in the last financial year only. The unclaimed money database lists millions of dollars in unclaimed money, property, accounts, and assets from all 50 states, that could belong to you. “Unclaimed property laws have been around since at least the 1940s, but have become much broader and more enforced in the last 15 years,” the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) says on its website, which represents the state-level programs.

New York’s comptroller has reported that the state is home to billions of dollars of unclaimed money; one of the largest pools of unclaimed money in the country. While state treasury is taking all the steps to reunite the owners of these lost funds with their hard earned money, the going has not been that smooth. By a recent estimate, the state of New York currently holds nearly $10 billion in unclaimed funds. Most of these unclaimed funds come from come from 25 million inactive bank, business, and government accounts unclaimed by their owners and in the care of the state controller’s office.

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.

The volume of unclaimed money and property continues to grow big and state treasuries are trying to manage this problem to the best of their capability. Most of the states are reporting a consistent upward slide in the unclaimed property graph. Every state has reported an astounding figure for the unclaimed money. In addition to the state treasuries, some of the bigger banks have also reported large numbers for the unclaimed bank balances. A recent Press Release is about half a million dollars in unclaimed money from former Washington Mutual Bank customers in Wisconsin is waiting to be claimed.

Lotteries publicize big unclaimed lottery prizes before they are about to expire. “We tell people: ‘Check your tickets! Hey, you never know,’ “New York Lottery spokesman John Charleson says. This applies to both the regular as well as occasional buyers of lotteries. Unclaimed lottery cases are reported very frequently and many times hefty jackpots are unclaimed for a long time. Every year, scores of big jackpots are left unclaimed and the authorities have put all the measures of publicizing any unclaimed lottery – so that the rightful owner picks up the prize money before the expiry date.

The unclaimed money pile is major source of concern for state treasuries along with federal agencies. The exponential growth of the unclaimed money has been unabated and can be seen across all the states. In addition to the larger states, now the smaller states and organizations like banks and insurance companies, are also reporting large volumes of abandoned and unclaimed funds.

Larger states like New York and California are facing the challenge of locating the owners of huge unclaimed money chunks: $10 billion and $6 billion, respectively. In a recent Press Release, about half a million dollars in unclaimed money from former Washington Mutual Bank is waiting to be claimed by its previous customers.