Is California taking your money?
Millions of Californians have made hefty contributions of cash, stocks and personal property to state coffers without knowing it. The reason behind this is that lawmakers have been pilfering from the state’s unclaimed-property cache and using the proceeds to help balance the budget.
Approximately $896 million in unclaimed property was turned over to the state for safekeeping last year under a 46-year-old program designed to protect forgotten or abandoned assets. Less than $239 million of that was eventually claimed; most of the rest went into the state’s general fund.
State officials have been increasingly aggressive about taking control of the property. When the program began, property could go unclaimed for more than 15 years before it had to be turned over to California. Now, the state takes it after as little as a year.
Most unclaimed property is unclaimed because the rightful owner does not know that it is there. Many of the owners of unclaimed property would be relatively easy to find.
The state pays commissions to outside contractors to hunt down out-of-state money owed to Californians.
State budget writers estimate that at least 80% of it will never be claimed, and in the last two years they have put that amount into the general fund under the direction of the handful of lawmakers who serve on budget committees.
Some legislators were surprised to learn how much unclaimed wealth was in the general fund, and how little the state does to find its owners. With the technology available to us today, it is much easier to locate people. With awareness of this issue, people can also find ways to loacte their unclaimed money and property.
“We should be spending a little bit more time trying to find these people,” said Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee Chairman John Klehs (D-San Leandro). “I wasn’t aware that much unclaimed property was going into the general fund.”
Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine said he hadn’t realized how little effort is made to locate the owners. “This is something we should take a look at,” he said.
Administration officials said the Legislature put the $15,000 cap on outreach efforts more than a decade ago, amid concerns that money intended for informing the public was being spent for other purposes.
California is not alone in coveting the unclaimed cash and goods. In 2003, states collected $22.8 billion in unclaimed property, according to the National Assn. of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Only $916 million of that was returned to its owners.
Every state has its own set of unclaimed property laws and its own system for holding and claiming funds. Cash Unclaimed Money Search has simplified this process and pulled all this information into one big searchable database where you can search for and claim your unclaimed property.
See www.CashUnclaimed.com for more information.
