Colorado’s Great Colorado Payback’s at a Standstill
Colorado, like so many other U.S. States, is grappling with problem of unclaimed funds. Colorado is taking all the possible steps to payback its citizens who might have some unclaimed funds. As a practical step towards this, State Treasurer, Cary Kennedy, kicked off the 2010 Great Colorado Payback on April 16, 2010.
Kennedy made an announcement through a press release that the Great Colorado Payback managed to pay claims totaling more than $500,000 to a Fort Collins resident. It was one of the twenty claims made during the past fiscal year, which ranged between $40,000 and $1 million. Colorado had eight claims this year that were worth more than $100,000.
By an approximate survey and statistics, most of the claims were comprised of forgotten stocks, trusts, and payments to heirs, with an average claim being worth over $100. Because of the sheer volume of these small payback amounts, the pile of unclaimed funds in Colorado has continued to swell. The Great Colorado Payback is a brilliant effort in this regard and has resulted in returning over $25,000,000 to the claimants this fiscal year.
The first signs coming out of the Great Colorado Payback have been very encouraging with almost 41% increase in the number of claims towards the lost funds as compared to the previous year. In the Fiscal Year 2008-2009, the Great Colorado Payback returned a record $25.5 million to the claimants. But, it is always about the demand and the supply, and the sheer volume of the incoming unclaimed funds have managed to offset the good work done by the Great Colorado Payback. Now it is almost certain that the catch-up game is being played as far as the number of claims is concerned. Even the state authorities have agreed that the deficit between the volume of unclaimed funds and the number of claims is getting bigger with each passing day.
The Colorado State Treasurer currently maintains a list of over 500,000 names of individuals, as well as businesses, on whose name any unclaimed property is available. The payback program currently holds more than $500 million belonging to the owners who had forgotten about the property in their name.
Just like the other states, Colorado experiences the major influx of unclaimed funds from the following sources: unclaimed royalties, un-cashed insurance checks, unclosed savings accounts, unredeemed dividends, money orders, payroll wages, security deposits, etc., that has accumulated over the years as unclaimed property. Although, the Great Colorado Payback was a very dynamic reclaim program and it served the state treasury in a very effective manner for quite some time. The awareness created by it is still benefitting the claimants of unclaimed funds but, the deluge of new unclaimed funds have nullified a lot of great work being accomplished by this program.
It’s time, the Colorado authorities initiate another aggressive program to reach out to the residents of Colorado to take part in the reclaim campaign. Citizens can contact the Great Colorado Payback Office during 8am – 5pm from Monday to Friday, or call the numbers 303-866-6070 or 800-825-2111.
