Unclaimed Property Blog

Current Nebraska State Treasurer, Ron Ross, wants to promote the unclaimed property laws. The concern is that he will be using the State’s money and this promotion could also boost his election campaign.

While it may be true that his spending roughly $200,000 in state funds on television ads and a public-relations consultant could result in a big payoff for Nebraskans, his opponent in the race for state treasurer, Shane Osborn, says Ross may actually be seeking another sort of payoff: A boost to his election campaign.

Yes it is true, Colorado has given their attempts to return unclaimed property and money to citizens a name; the Great Colorado Payback. Keeping in the fun of things, last Friday fans attending the big CU/Nebraska football game had a chance to claim their share of more than $300 million in unclaimed property currently held by the state.

The Great Colorado Payback program allows Coloradoans to claim lost or forgotten property such as checking accounts, savings accounts and safe deposit boxes abandoned for more than five years, which the state has taken for safekeeping.

There are about 3,000 veterans statewide who are owed unclaimed property. The state recently began sending letters to the veterans that are owed their share.

Where is this money from? Cash, securities, escheated estates (those given to the state when no heirs exist) and contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes are regularly turned over to the Office of the State Treasurer. The treasurer’s office then attempts to find the owners. It publishes unclaimed property lists and it maintains a searchable database of unclaimed property online. But many people still never realize they have anything coming to them.

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.

Unclaimed property laws are often complicated and confusing. When do companies have to report this money? How does a consumer claim this money? How long does the government hold the money? All great questions… the problem is that there is no standard answer…

Often referred to as the burden of proof, the burden of persuasion can be very significant. The party who has this burden must convince the court; otherwise he loses!

The burden of persuasion falls to the state as it must convince the court that the property in question is in fact presumptively abandoned. Usually the states have met this burden.

MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston enlightens her readers on how your safe-deposit box could become “abandoned” and turned over to the state as unclaimed property.

Ever wonder how it is that a state can have such a high amount of unclaimed cash and property? Well, Ms. Weston discloses how a bank can claim your safe-deposit box is abandoned. Once claimed to be abandoned it then becomes the property of the state. The result is the contents of your safe-deposit box is now unclaimed money or property. She gives excellent insight as to how this happens and how you can protect yourself from this.

Officials with the Hawaii State Department of Budget and Finance will be at the 83rd Maui County Fair to assist residents in conducting searches for unclaimed property or other found money that belongs to them. The specialists with the Unclaimed Property Program will be at the fair for all four days.

The Unclaimed Funds Program accepts and holds property from financial institutions that have been inactive and unclaimed, including back accounts, certificates of deposit, insurance payments and gift certificates. Anyone can conduct a search to find out it they have any lost money owed to them. The problem with the Hawaii unclaimed property program is that it only covers one database for the state government when there are over 54 additional databases that you need to search.

Missing Money is a website sponsored by the National Unclaimed Property Administrators and some states. However, it appears the the database is missing about 22 of the states,. Further it appears that this site doesn’t have any local or Federal government money databases.

Many people try this site since it is no cost, but miss out on billions of dollars in unclaimed money that isn’t listed there.

That’s why Cash Unclaimed Money Search was created. We combine over 54 different unclaimed money sources into one big searchable database so it is easy for you to find out if you are owed any found money.

Edgecombe County Clerk of Superior Court Carol Allen White said her office is trying to find the rightful owners of about $19,503 in unclaimed property, money and funds being held by her office.

“If satisfactory proof of claim is not presented by Oct. 1, the law requires us to submit the money to the N.C. Treasurer’s office. After we send the money to the state treasurer’s office, the rightful owners will have to contact Raleigh to get their money back.”

Minnesota is trying to return over $230 Million dollars to it’s rightful owners. The Star Tribune reporter Kara McGuire wrote that her husband recently recovered $124

Minnesota’s unclaimed property law mandates that companies turn assets over to the state if they can’t locate the rightful owner within three years. There are many other sources of unclaimed money, property and funds. It can be from lost tax refunds, insurance settlements, old bank accounts and safe deposit boxes.