Unclaimed Property Blog

Unclaimed property is a familiar term for a US citizen. But do you know what is the actual concept underlying in this term?

A property is declared as unclaimed property if the owner of the property neglects his assets or the owner of the property discontinue all his contacts with the company or institution or individual currently using the property, and the company or institution or the individual using the property can not communicate with the owner of the property because of various reasons such as change of phone number or address.

There are millions of people who shift from one place to another and do not even leave their forwarding address so that the insurance checks or salary checks could be sent to. There are hundreds of such unclaimed property or money matters that need to be solved.

If you are one of them you can also claim on unclaimed money search websites and fill in the information so that if you are eligible you will get back either your property or if it has been auctioned the amount will be given to you.

It is said that all beautiful things are free. There is no price to view the beauty of sunset, the warmth of a hug, the smile of a toddler, or the touch of a rain drop. But then what about a dinner in the Ritz, a holiday in Hawaii, a long drive. You need the GREEN for that; which always seems to be less. So if you come to know that there is some money, lying somewhere, with someone, which legally and in every terms belongs to you how would it sound? GREAT, Right. So to experience this, enter the WORLD OF UNCLAIMED FUNDS.

This statement, “The IRS has money for you” may seem odd to most of us; but there are many that have not received their refund. Read on for details on this.

Currently Georgia and Utah have published information regarding the IRS looking for residents in these states. Since we are talking IRS, this is happening in all states.

Some of you may ask how is this possible? One reason is that in today’s society people move around often and do not always leave forwarding addresses. Another common reason is that the peron filling out their tax return does not put the correct address down. So as you check your figures, check the address too.

Unclaimed money is not just something that Americans have. Our neighbor to the North also has the dilemma of returning money to rightful owners.

In this case we are looking at one bank, the Bank of Canada. It was reported that as of January 1, 2006 the bank was holding 854,000 dormant bank accounts totalling $270 million. The largest single account has a balance of $423,598.58.

With amounts of money like that you may wonder how someone would forget about it. There are sudden deaths where the relatives have no knowledge of this account. The bank does not have a current address and therefore cannot contact the rightful heir. The most common reason for an abandoned account is the owner relocates and does not inform the bank of the move.

Unclaimed property is the topic for some of England’s largest charities. Money is sitting idle and charities are in need of funds. What to do? Read on to find out what they are planning.

Some of England’s largest charities have formed an independent body which is set to announce plans for a “social investment bank” . The purpose of this group is to take over hundreds of millions of pounds lying in dormant bank accounts.

The exact plan will be unveiled on July 12, 2006 as part of an interim report by the Commission on Unclaimed Assets. The Commission is reviewing how dormant funds could be distributed to charities if the assets are not reclaimed by their owners.

Tobacco farmers were once given a settlement to no longer raise tobacco. If you thought that all the money was given out, think again.

In the fall of 2005 the Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division received payment under the Master Settlement agreement (MSA) between the major domestic cigarette manufacturers and 46 states. This is money that had gone unclaimed for several years.

Further looking into this uncovered that there are about 1,300 farmers in Kentucky who have not claimed all they were due from the tobacco settlements.

Indiana is once again making more attempts to contact people that have unclaimed property. The state does want to give this money back to the rightful owner.

For various reasons money does get turned over to the state. The laws on unclaimed property vary from state to state as to what is to be turned over to the state and the time limits to turn in unclaimed assets.

In Indiana financial institutions and other holders are required to turn over assets of accounts that have had five or seven (depending on the type of account) years of inactivity. After 25 years, unclaimed funds become subject to the general fund.

You may have seen legal notices in local newspapers, your mail box may hold a letter of invitation and the internet entices you to do it. What is it? It is a search for unclaimed property or money. Some research was done and here follows basic information on unclaimed property.

Well, it is true! There are billions of unclaimed dollars sitting in state coffers waiting for rightful owners to be found.

Are you thinking, it’s probably a scam or highly unlikely that any amount of the billions could be yours?

It seems as if there isn’t enough money to go around sometimes. The flip side to this is that there is money sitting waiting to be claimed. Read on to find out how the Capitol is uniting the people with money.

For over 25 years, the district has accumulated $250 million in unclaimed property. About one-fifth of the owners are found each year.

Locked in an electronically secured vault on K Street are mounds of items that are now handled by the District of Columbia Department of Unclaimed Property. The property has come from banks, corporations, trading companies, hospitals and nursing homes, all required by law to send the city items whose owners have left behind and not come forward to claim.