Unclaimed Property Blog

The current manner in which CA holds unclaimed property may have a change. A bill has been introduced regarding unclaimed money and property.

There are billions of dollars worth of property unclaimed by Californians. Some officials want the state to be more aggressive about finding the owners.

Under California law the state is the recipient of an abandoned safe deposit boxes and bank accounts after three years on inactivity and when the bank cannot locate the owner, the contents and money go to the state. For unclaimed wages and salaries the time limit is one year.

Gary Kent Jones did not receive the letters of notification of the sale of his property. He found out the house was for sale once it was sold. Could this happen to you or someone you know?

It was determined by the U. S. Supreme Court with a vote of 5-3 that Arkansas’ land commissioner should have done more to try to notify a homeowner that his house was to be sold. The reason for the sale is that he did not pay the property tax.

A New Mexico woman questions a probate judge about property when the owner dies and the is no known next-of-kin.

Here are the questions asked:

What could be done in the case where someone dies and there is no known next-of-kin and there is property involved?
Can you still petition the courts to be appointed special administrator?

The deceased owned a trailer, two lots, a bank account, a car and an investment account with a local investment company. The person asking the questions is interested in buying the house and lots.

Seems like people are constantly trying to get something for nothing. For online merchants this is a growing concern.

A company that specializes in fighting chargebacks has increased by 42% the number of credit card chargebacks it has handled.

What is this all about? More and more internet shopping and services are becoming available and the number of people who make internet purchases is also increasing. That is the plus side. The down side for the honest consumers is when someone makes a purchase on their credit card and then tell their credit card companies not to honor the payment.

Each state has their own rules or laws governing what constitutes unclaimed property as well as when is the property classified as unclaimed or abandoned property. Read on for a sampling.

Under Wisconsin’s unclaimed property law, banks, savings institutions, credit unions, insurance companies, utility companies and other businesses must report when they have somebody’s money in an account that hasn’t been active for five years and they cannot locate the owner.

In Michigan if the account remains dormant for a year, the banks are legally obligated to turn it over to the state.

When you look amongst the items found it is hard to understand how they were lost. Seeing these items does make one wonder about the story behind their loss.

Here is one such story about the ashes of a loved one.

A funeral urn was found on a London Underground train. There was some investigating done and the urn was returned to its guardian after spending five years in the lost property office.

Some German words were found on the urn which lead to the location of the cremation, Austria. It was determined that the remains were a Mr. John Ross. Further asking of questions found his brother Peter, the
rightful owner.

It has happened before and here it is again. A State Treasurer advertising unclaimed property in an attempt to get his name and face into public view.

North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore is contemplating running for governor. This is not uncommon, we all want to move up in our jobs.

Currently he is using escheat money to pay for television ads to raise awareness of the escheat fund. What is the escheat fund? It is a pool of unclaimed money from abandoned bank accounts, unclaimed utility deposits and other sources.

Take a good look, some famous people and an airport?

What do Aretha Franklin, Marshall Mathers (Eminem), former Michigan governor John Engler, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport have in common? All are listed on different databases that say they are the owners of unclaimed property.

Most of the money comes from forgotten bank accounts, stocks, mutual funds, bonds and dividends although there are other sources for unclaimed property.

Usually when you hear about doing a search for unclaimed property you think of a person doing this. It is not a very well known fact that school districts, cities and counties also could have unclaimed money.

Jerry Hudlow, Rogers Finance Director checks the state auditor’s unclaimed-property list every year to see if his city is on it.

His review of what’s published as The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt in newspapers across the state each fall keeps Rogers off a list of 119 cities, school districts, counties and other government entities with $89, 523 in unclaimed money held by the State Auditor Jim Wood’s office.

Maryland State Comptroller, Michael Golden may be earning that name. He is looking to return $75 million to rightful owners. You may find him to be golden when you find your treasure.

A local newspaper has published the annual unclaimed property insert. The insert lists the names of residents with unclaimed bank accounts, stocks, payroll and numerous other unclaimed assets. About $75 million belonging to 116,700 owners still not been handed out.

But with a policy change, coupled with growing popularity of the comptroller’s Web site, the insert scheduled was cut in half. However, the number of people who have not collected their unclaimed money, did not.