Unclaimed Property Blog

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.

The IRS has lost a lawsuit regarding a tax on phone bills. The result is that taxpayers will no longer have to pay this tax and will also be getting money back.

A while back there was a blog on this tax. You may recall that telephone bills had a 3% federal excise tax on long-distance services. The bill permitting this tax was originally enacted in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War. Several lawsuits were filed regarding this tax be abolished and refunded. The IRS has lost the right to charge this and the Treasury now has to refund approximately $13 billion to taxpayers.

Sometimes your deposit and your debit don’t quite make it onto your checking account as planned. You look up your balance on the internet and the deposit is there. Are you safe in spending it?

Here is the story of a man in Georgia who does online banking. He made a deposit and checked his account and found the deposit was posted. Nothing was noted stating the deposit was on hold or the funds not available, so he wrote checks against this money. Several days later his bank returned his checks with fees for insufficient funds; stating the deposit was on hold. This notification was after the deposit was posted on the online statement. To make matters worse for him were the fees that the bank charged for the “bounced” checks totaled $400.00.

Back-to-school shopping can be costly. Some states have decided to waive the sales tax on particular purchases.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia are offering shoppers a sales tax holiday this year. The majority of states will be doing this on the first weekend of August.

Be sure to schedule your shopping trip during these times for extra savings. And before you bring your purchases to the register, make sure the items qualify. Some purchases will save you sales-tax dollars, others will not. Participating states have a detailed list of their sales-tax-exempt items. Each state can and does have varying products and dates of the sale, so be sure you know before you go.

You read the headlines about states having millions of dollars to give to rightful owners. Tempting? Here is a story about someone that got caught cheating.

Florida has found Michael Bronstein, 37 guilty of stealing almost one million dollars from the state’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property. Bronstein plead guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

Bronstein was sentenced May 25 for his participation in an elaborate scheme to file fraudulent claims for unclaimed property.

The Florida Bureau of Unclaimed Property has more than $1 billion in cash and unclaimed property from dormant bank accounts, uncashed payroll checks and abandoned safe deposit boxes.

Did you know that your credit card could carry accidental death insurance? Not many do, here are the details.

Your in line to purchase your plane ticket. Ever wonder whether you should pick up some insurance just in case? Well, not to worry, you may already have that extra insurance right in your wallet. Check your credit cards.

Each of the four major credit card brands (American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa) offer some form of coverage. This is what the insurance industry calls “accidental death and dismemberment” or AD&D coverage.

The benefits vary by brand and card type and can range in coverage from $100,000 to $1 million.

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.

Have you ever read the fine print? Do you even know what the larger print means? Here are some definitions that will help you to better understand the “deal” you are getting when you apply for a credit card.

If you don’t understand what is being said, credit card offers and statements could lead you down the path to deep debt when you thought you were at 0% interest. Here is what some of the frequently used credit card terms mean:

You’re paying the bills and there isn’t any more room in the file cabinet or drawer, what do you do? Do you sit and wonder which are the important papers to keep and which ones can be thrown out?

A basic rule is to keep tax related documents for seven years. Following this you would want to keep any documentation to support your taxes for this amount of time as well.

Exceptions to the seven year rule of course would be investment or asset documentation (car and home purchases, stock or bonds that are still owned). The few documents you need to keep for life would include but may not be limited to birth, death and marriage certificates, adoption papers and divorce decrees, for example.

The price of a gallon of gas is now above $3.00. Many are feeling the pain in their financial portfolio. How does this affect retirement?

Having paid more to drive in the last six months, three out of four Americans said higher living costs prevented them from saving more for retirement.

The Fidelity Retirement Index, which analyzes American households’ overall retirement readiness, found that among Americans whose savings plans were pinched by higher living costs, nearly one in two had cut the amount to be saved for retirement. Thus the higher price of gas has cut the amount going into savings toward retirement, that is how they are related.