Unclaimed Money Exists For Most Americans
Unclaimed money in America has now touched almost all of the American households. In most of the American extended family, there is at least one person who has not staked a claim to their rightfully earned money. The reason is mainly because most Americans are completely unaware there is unclaimed money that belongs to them, which is unfortunate due to the increasing volume of it.
Federal and State agencies have realized that the U.S. unclaimed or lost money is growing in volume with each passing day. The unclaimed databases are swelling with unclaimed money as new and lost money is being added at a much faster rate. While larger states, like California and New York, have a combined unclaimed money vault of almost $16 billion, almost all other states have been reporting unclaimed funds additions to their treasuries at a furious pace.
Apart from the State and Federal treasuries, many of the major banks are disclosing that the volume of unclaimed bank balances have been growing at a rapid pace. A recent Press Release stated former Washington Mutual bank customers have about half a million dollars in unclaimed money in Wisconsin, waiting to be claimed.
As an example, in the state of Wisconsin, there are almost 8,300 accounts which have unclaimed balances, with the largest unclaimed account having a value of $58,000. As a sign of this growing problem of unclaimed funds (when the American people are in real need of money), Oprah Winfrey had to distribute unclaimed money on her show, realizing that 8 out of 9 families in the U.S. are still the owners of some lost fund somewhere.
Many U.S. residents might be missing out on their hard earned funds. The following examples of increasing unclaimed money awareness from some of the states are worth mentioning:
Ohio: The Hancock County advertisement in a newspaper included 1,188 unclaimed funds accounts worth more than $617,260. The advertised accounts, each valued at $50 or more were turned over within the past year for individuals whose last known address was in Hancock County. At regular intervals, State of Ohio publishes the list for unclaimed funds through widely circulated dailies in each county.
Maryland: The Comptroller’s office published a 144-page insert into Maryland’s Frederick News-Post. This publication contained almost 60,000 identified owners of unclaimed cash worth more than $42 million.
Colorado: The payback list in Saturday’s newspapers in the state of Colorado reaches millions of state residents and helps in uniting the owners of the unclaimed money. These payback lists involve more than $50 million of unclaimed funds. Once a reader finds their name in this payback list, they can contact the state treasury for further guidance.
Connecticut: Almost 35,000 names of unidentified owners were published in newspapers in the state of Connecticut. This had a great impact and resulted in uniting so many of the rightful owners with their missing money.
Texas: After utilizing all the other media channels, Texas Comptroller’s office has initiated a print media based awareness program for reaching the remotest corners of Texas. This drive has already resulted in streamlining a large amount of unclaimed funds and reducing the missing money pile.
Currently, Texas is publishing almost six regional unclaimed property list in the newspapers instead of one combined list. This enables a larger circulation of lists in all the areas of Texas.
