Unclaimed Property Blog

Ebay has become the latest place for unclaimed assets to be found and purchased. Unclaimed items from across the globe can be found at Ebay at amazingly cheap prices. Items ranging from abandoned safety deposit boxes and police confiscated items are being auctioned to the highest bidder on Ebay.

Some of the most common unclaimed property on Ebay are from Safety deposit boxes. By law, any safety deposit box which has not been claimed for 3 years (in most of the states), is turned over to the state’s unclaimed property division. At this point of time state may decide to auction the items of the deposit box.

With the rise of unclaimed property, local police stations have taken measures to decrease the amounts. police auctions are often considered a great place for a great deal. Most of these auctions are held to dispose of vehicles and surplus/obsolete equipment.

They are also held for such things as recovered items, unclaimed or stolen goods, seized items and much more. Some of the other sought after items from the police department auctions are cars, communication equipment, cameras, and more. Everything that is auctioned through the Police department is in a good shape and well maintained due to strict maintenance schedules.

Recently, it was discovered that the internal revenue service (IRS) had a huge pile of unclaimed state money in the form of IRS unclaimed tax money lying in its vaults. The total worth of IRS unclaimed money is estimated to be around $70 million in the form of income tax refunds, and these are now bracketed under unclaimed state money. This figure is the average for a single year and the figure might go up.

Unclaimed gift cards have become a new source of unclaimed money in America. Here are some gift card related statistics that intends to reveal the gift card circulation in America and the volume of unclaimed gift cards that are in the unclaimed money pool:

Expired gift card money has been a concern this holiday season. The gift season is in full glory starting from Thanksgiving up till the New Year. The chances are that you are either the recipient of a gift or you are planning to give a gift to someone close to your heart. Gift cards are the most common form of gifts being exchanged during the holiday season.

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.