Unclaimed Property Blog

An unclaimed property listing will be published in local papers. You could have money in the state’s coffers waiting to be claimed.

In Rock County, Wisconsin some property owners are missing roughly $1.5 million in unclaimed property per the office of State Treasurer Jack Voight. The state is advertising about 64,000 names in newspapers statewide.

About 36,600 unclaimed stock shares account for some of that amount in Rock County. Other unclaimed assets may include bank accounts, checks, bonds, insurance claims, stock dividends or wages.

Within the state there are approximately 700,000 property owners who have not claimed about $300 million. Included in that number is unclaimed money reported as early as 1970.

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?

This spring along with flowers blooming some people’s net worth could bloom. Could you be one?

Each spring in Maine the State Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division releases a list of unclaimed property being held by the Treasurer’s office for the rightful owner to claim.

Typically unclaimed assets are savings and checking accounts, contents of safe deposit boxes, life insurance policies, utility deposits, uncashed pay checks, undistributed dividends, from a bank account you forgot to close, or even a gift certificate.

Each state has laws to govern the unclaimed property collected, held and distributed, read on for how Oregon handles their unclaimed money and property.

Oregon currently holds $200 million in unclaimed property at the Department of State Lands. The money is held in the Common School Fund. This trust fund also receives the profits from economic activity on state-owned land. Interest earned on that fund goes to help K-12 schools.

The money and property is derived from a variety of sources, such as utility refunds, uncashed payroll checks, estates with no known heirs, stocks, unclaimed tax refunds and abandoned safe deposit boxes.

In most towns there is someone that is looking for people that owe money and looking for people who have lost money. Wayland, MA isn’t any different. Read on for some laws that the state imposes on found money.

Town Administrator Fred Turkington works to track down Wayland residents who owe taxes to the town while Treasurer Paul Keating is doing just the opposite.

Each year Treasurer Keating is required by law to try to locate people whom the town owes money, individuals and businesses who never cashed checks the town has written.

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.

The Canton Illinois police tried to give the $267.00 back to its owner. They attempted to return the money for about 17 years.

Brian Campbell was arrested on Feb. 27, 1989. He was convicted on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana.

During the arrest police confiscated all his property, which is standard procedure. Campbell was also wanted on a burglary warrant in Indiana, where he had lived at the time. When Canton police sent him to Indiana to faces charges there, they forwarded all his property except the $267 he had been carrying in cash.

Indiana has over $325 million in unclaimed property. The state is currently looking to find homes for these wayward dollars.

Two Indiana papers will publish a list of names March 22nd and 29th. The list includes all unclaimed assets that were turned over to the state in 2005.

You may be on the list if you have forgotten or lost investment earnings, insurance proceeds or benefits, wages, dormant bank accounts, unclaimed utility deposits, stocks, or safe-deposit boxes. The list does not include real estate or physical property, except for contents of safe-deposit boxes.

It is almost like Christmas again for some residents. Every year the announcement of unclaimed cash and unclaimed property is distributed. You could be on the list.

The Pennsylvania Treasury Department advertises the names and last known address of those individuals and businesses owed unclaimed funds.

Since January 2005, more than $107 million in unclaimed property was returned. The average claim is about $1,300. In 1999 the state had the largest payout which was $1.4 million.

The money comes from financial assets such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, certificates of deposit, insurance benefits, stocks, unused gift certificates, and property abandoned in safe-deposit boxes. The law on the safe-deposit box is if left untouched for five years is declared unclaimed property.

The “safe” in safe deposit box may not be as safe as you think. Do you know the rules on these boxes?

You have a safe deposit box with a bank. This has the appearance of being safe. However, what happens when you have not been to the box in years? What about if you were to die unexpectedly? Are your possessions really protected?

So how can you protect yourself and your possessions if you have a safe deposit box? Consider taking the following actions: