Unclaimed Property Blog

Iowa’s Treasure Hunt has benefited many, reuniting with unclaimed money. A large number of people have already benefited from The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt program and it has already returned over $122 million in unclaimed property to more than 310,000 rightful owners of unclaimed money. In Iowa, unclaimed money was considered unrealistic and out of bounds for the most part. “We get millions of dollars in each year,” Fitzgerald stated. “We believe the best way to find people are to ask others in their community to help us. That’s why we are sending out the top 25 list.”

More states are considering the use of unclaimed money for the benefit of the state. The prolonged economic slump has forced a lot of state governments and agencies to rethink their operational and financial strategy. It is hardly surprising that the state of Delaware, like California, is fighting hard to continue the various development projects. Taking a cue from California, Delaware is trying to utilize a key source of revenue: state unclaimed money.

On Feb 7, 2011, a listing of nearly 44,000 people with unclaimed money or other property will be published in newspapers across north Texas. The office of the State Comptroller has reported that this time the traditional statewide list of unclaimed property owners has been replaced with six regional lists. The Comptroller will publish six regional unclaimed property lists in more than 30 Texas newspapers from December 2010 through April 2011.

With unclaimed assets increasing by the day, it would not be surprising that your ancestral unclaimed assets might be more than you can imagine. Like bonds, trust funds and estates, inheritance money can also be lost because of so many reasons.

Ancestral inheritance money can be because of a variety of reasons:

A deceased relative left no written will
Your relative switched funds over to another bank
Multiple address changes were done before your dear ones left this world
A contested estate was left behind or a life insurance policy that was never cashed in

Many are still weary about the truth behind unclaimed money. Even after years of constant outreach agenda and awareness programs, many of the claimants are not confident of the outcome of the search process. It is still inconceivable for a lot of people to believe that some money which they have no idea can still be retrieved. State treasuries and federal agencies are on toes to help any genuine claimant of lost funds.

The unclaimed money pile is growing at an extreme rate across all state treasuries. This is a major source of anxiety for the officials in charge of disbursing the unclaimed money. All the pillars of the government machinery are working full time towards a rapid disbursement and management of unclaimed funds, and are trying their best to locate the actual owners.

Until recently, the process of unclaimed money search was a secret only known to a very few. Now the availability of Internet and access to online documents have made sure that relevant information is available to the potential owners of these unclaimed funds. The collaborative effort between the state and federal government is ensuring that the right information is reaching the target audience at the right time.

The unclaimed asset vault is at an all time high. In the government and bureaucratic circles, it is a major concern for the state treasury officials as well as the federal decision makers. After a prolonged phase of planning, State and Federal governments have taken a joint stance towards creating a viable and effective outreach program to spread the awareness about the unclaimed property.

Unclaimed money has become a major buzz word within the government and media lately. Authorities at both the state and federal level have utilized all the modes of media campaigning to spread the word about the unclaimed money, and the Internet has provided a lot of intelligence and insight to both the owners and caretakers of unclaimed funds.

Since websites have universal accessibility and is understandable to even the most technologically challenged individual, every state has a website which is updated and published with the most current information. Apart from initiating the traditional reclaim programs initiated by federal government, state treasuries have utilized the online media to a great effect and the results have been very encouraging. Owners of unclaimed funds in very remote areas have also been able to submit their claim forms through the unclaimed money websites.

Unclaimed funds are still in an abundance in the U.S. Internet access has provided a lot of intelligence and insight to the whole assignment of locating the owners of unclaimed funds. It is a great weapon for both parties: those who have lost money and those who are in charge of the lost money.

The unclaimed money volume has created a lot of logistical and management issues for the state treasuries. State governments across the nation are taking all the practical and effective measures to locate the rightful owners of the lost funds. Almost all of the states are facing the familiar problem of increasing pile of unclaimed funds and very few reclaim inquiries in contrast.

With larger states like California and New York reporting a combined unclaimed asset of almost $16 billion, the drive to locate the owners of unclaimed funds has been sped up in the last couple of years. In normal circumstances, any addition of funds is a positive thing for the State government, but with respect to the unclaimed funds, it’s a real issue of managing the unknown.