Unclaimed property returned to surprised owner.
West Virginia is getting tougher. The State Treasurer is actively seeking owners of unclaimed property.
Each state holds unclaimed property. All have different ways to find and return the money to the rightful owner. West Virginia has decided to become more active in giving money away.
Recently, Jack Phillips of Phillips Machine Service was contacted and received $117,000 worth of cash and stock dividends.
Wondering how someone could lose $117,000? The company had some stock and the bank holding the stock certificates could not locate the company. Per state law, the stock is transferred to the state for safe keeping.
West Virginia Treasurer, John Perdue, and his office have become more aggressive in seeking rightful owners of unclaimed property. True, the state does want to give away money, that was not a printing error.
After becoming the state treasurer Perdue learned about unclaimed property and how to find owners. His office began advertising in newspapers and put up a Web site. The result was the state began returning hundreds of thousands of dollars to its rightful and sometimes surprised owners.
Since1961, approximately $65 million has been returned to the people of West Virginia. The majority since Perdue took office and began the return program. Even with this amount returned, there still remains $110 million to be claimed. Perdue said approximately 85% of the unclaimed property belongs to individuals and about 15% belongs to companies.
The usual resources for unclaimed property are long-dormant bank account, a forgotten utility deposit, a family heirloom in an abandoned safe deposit box, a final paycheck undelivered, stocks and bonds, or some stock a grandparent or other relative purchased and it was forgotten in a safety deposit box.
For more information about finding and claiming unclaimed money and other assets go to www.CashUnclaimed.com. This is a Web site that monitors state and federal databases for unclaimed property. This allows one entry of your name for a complete search, not going to each state and doing an individual search. So save time, possibly gain money and help your state by doing a free money search now.
