Unclaimed Property Blog

Millions of Californians have made hefty contributions of cash, stocks and personal property to state coffers without knowing it. The reason behind this is that lawmakers have been pilfering from the state’s unclaimed-property cache and using the proceeds to help balance the budget.

Approximately $896 million in unclaimed property was turned over to the state for safekeeping last year under a 46-year-old program designed to protect forgotten or abandoned assets. Less than $239 million of that was eventually claimed; most of the rest went into the state’s general fund.

About $30,000 in unclaimed cash will be moved into the city’s general fund if the rightful owners don’t claim it by the end of the month. To claim this money contact the Oklahoma City Police Department.

The found money turned into the police ranges from one penny to $3,317. Police do make every attempt to return this money to the owners prior to adding it to the city’s budget. There isn’t a standard amount, it is just money that the police had turned in to them for various reasons.

Unclaimed property laws are often complicated and confusing. When do companies have to report this money? How does a consumer claim this money? How long does the government hold the money? All great questions… the problem is that there is no standard answer…

Often referred to as the burden of proof, the burden of persuasion can be very significant. The party who has this burden must convince the court; otherwise he loses!

The burden of persuasion falls to the state as it must convince the court that the property in question is in fact presumptively abandoned. Usually the states have met this burden.

Like many other cities and states, Philadelphia, PA is trying to locate owners of unclaimed property and funds to return the unclaimed money to the correct owners.

“Right now we have, in the five county region meaning, Philadelphia and the four suburban counties, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware, as much as, more than, 308-million dollars,â€? said PA State Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr.

Why does this unclaimed money and property end up with the state? The law requires it. After a certain amount of time, dormant bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, insurance payouts, you name it, must be handed over.

About $920,000 in tax refunds are due to residents in Utah. It is the goal of IRS Comminssioner Mark W. Everson to get this money back into the hands of the people it belongs to.

According to information provided by the IRS, refunds can go astray for a number of reasons, but they usually are lost when a taxpayer moves or changes address and doesn’t notify the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service. Utah taxpayers who have moved since filing their last tax return are those that should look into this free money give-a-way.

This week, the Montana Department of Revenue spent almost $10,000 to place 8,824 names in legal advertisements in daily newspapers across the state to contact the money’s owners.

Under a program set up by Montana law in 1963, unclaimed or abandoned money eventually gets turned over to the state. The state will hold it in trust for perpetuity.

To date, the state of Montana has collected about $47 million, and $16 million has been returned.

Check your family tree, a long-gone distant relative might be on this list. If you can provide proof of heritage, you could become richer.

The state of New Hampshire is looking for the owners of unclaimed cash and stocks. The amounts are $7.9 million in cash and 300,000 shares of stock.

Insurance Companies that converted from a mutual company have stock that was not given to the owners of the insurance policy. Some of the named companies are John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., MetLife Inc., Prudential Financial Inc., and Nationwide Provident.

Per the article the state’s portfolio of abandoned stock is worth more that $20 million. You could be owed money from these conversions. How much found money do you want to find? Search the Found Money search and find out.

MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston enlightens her readers on how your safe-deposit box could become “abandoned” and turned over to the state as unclaimed property.

Ever wonder how it is that a state can have such a high amount of unclaimed cash and property? Well, Ms. Weston discloses how a bank can claim your safe-deposit box is abandoned. Once claimed to be abandoned it then becomes the property of the state. The result is the contents of your safe-deposit box is now unclaimed money or property. She gives excellent insight as to how this happens and how you can protect yourself from this.

People were waiting in line to see if they were due money from the state of Califorina. It resulted in CA State Controller Steve Westly distrubuting 5 checks totalling $8,000 in the Fresno area. This is part of his statewide campaign to give $4.8 billion in unclaimed property back to rightful owners.

You may be a rightful owner and claim your share of the $4.8 billion.

Officials with the Hawaii State Department of Budget and Finance will be at the 83rd Maui County Fair to assist residents in conducting searches for unclaimed property or other found money that belongs to them. The specialists with the Unclaimed Property Program will be at the fair for all four days.

The Unclaimed Funds Program accepts and holds property from financial institutions that have been inactive and unclaimed, including back accounts, certificates of deposit, insurance payments and gift certificates. Anyone can conduct a search to find out it they have any lost money owed to them. The problem with the Hawaii unclaimed property program is that it only covers one database for the state government when there are over 54 additional databases that you need to search.