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As more N. Carolina unclaimed money flows in to to the state, than is returned to its rightful owners, the state’s missing funds pile has swelled to the record amount of $700 million! These unclaimed funds technically already belong to residents of the state whose only obstacle is learning how to properly track down all possible claims.

According to the N. Carolina Treasury Department, there are more than 100 kinds of property that may become “unclaimed” after lying dormant for 1 to 5 years (depending on the kind of asset). Of the 100 types, N. Carolina lists bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds, and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned as some of the most common types.

As with unclaimed funds across the country, the biggest roadblock in discovering N. Carolina unclaimed funds, is generally the peoples’ searching capabilities. To begin with, very few people are even aware of these abandoned funds (or they would obviously have never forgotten them in the first place), and those that are aware, simply haven’t learned the right way to search.

With almost 1.5 million accounts currently being held by the state, the chances of being owed money have never been better. Every N. Carolinian out there ought to rush out and begin their search. But those who aren’t educated on tracking down unclaimed monies might be in for a lot of frustration and wasted time, unless they first get educated on how NOT to search.

The majority of people hoping to take back their abandoned assets believe that if they can find a web site to input their name and click a “search” button, they’ve done everything they can. This could not be more wrong. To begin with, many databases aren’t legitimate, and those that are are only as good as the people who update them.

Suppose a resident checks their name on Friday, but a state employee hasn’t actually placed the data in the system for that resident’s name until Saturday. This search would obviously not be successful, even though the person was due a claim. Unclaimed money listings aren’t updated in real time, so checking records frequently is one of the best methods to put in play if you want to be confident in your search results.

Records that are out of date aren’t always the fault of the state. If the asset just hasn’t been abandoned long enough to be technically considered unclaimed, then it won’t have been handed over to the state. Strict laws dictate how found money is dealt with in each state, so you won’t run in to issues like a bank turning over a bank account after only 6 months, just because you had not accessed it. So again, not finding a record does not mean that you aren’t owed money, and you should check back often.

As has been mentioned, there are varying “dormancy periods” for each type of asset, but they commonly range from 1 to 5 years. This means that after periods of inactivity exceed those dormancy periods, the companies who hold these properties are required to hand them over to the treasury dept. if they are unable to find the rightful owner on their own. At that point, the state will act as a custodian, essentially a “holder” until you claim your money.

There are countless problems, in addition to the examples of search issues mentioned above that often plague new searchers, which is why it is all the more important that N. Carolina residents allow an unclaimed funds expert to help them with a step-by-step guide for navigating the lost cash maze.

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IRS Holding $1.3 Billion in Unclaimed Tax Refunds; Is Some of It Yours … – Walletpop.com
Three years ago, more than 1.3 million individuals apparently decided they had better things to do than file their 2005 tax returns, even though they were due refunds. In total, almost $1.3 billion worth of refunds from that tax year is still sitting …

Oregon DSL holding $300 Million in unclaimed money, property – Bend Weekly
SALEM, Ore. — Oregonians, like most Americans, are likely searching for ways to weather the current economic downturn. The state of Oregon – specifically the Department of State Lands (DSL) – may be holding “missing” money for citizens to …

Missing money? Head to missingmoney.com (Chicago Sun-Times)
Money’s tight these days. But maybe you have a little more of the green stuff than you think you do.

Tenn. Fails To Collect Outstanding Money (WSMV Nashville)
At a time when every penny counts, Tennessee has money that it has failed to collect.

Considerable Ammount Of Missing Money Not Claimed – HULIQ.com
While millions of people are sitting unemployed and struggling with their mortgage payments piles of Americans missing money are still sitting unclaimed in the various US State Treasuries. The current national total languishing in the various State …

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Omaha steaks are probably the most well known item to come out of Nebraska in recent years, but there’s something even juicier that NE residents will find is more beneficial to them personally. It was reported in 2007 that Nebraska unclaimed money had reached more than $85 million, and counting. Despite the fact that the State Treasurer’s Office has quite a few “outreach” events to connect citizens with their abandoned cash, a lack of knowledge on the matter means that more money is turned over to the state than is given back to the actual owners.

Living in a state with only roughly 1.7 million people, NE residents have great odds of learning that they are owed a portion of the total unclaimed property currently held by the State Treasurer. The only thing getting between the people and their cash is a search and a claim, but before that can be done right, the people have to know how to search or they could waste a lot of time on the wrong websites using the wrong search tactics.

The most important thing for people living in Nebraska to keep in mind, when searching for unclaimed funds, is that it isn’t a one search deal. This tip applies not only because many web sites aren’t providing reliable information, but mainly because the official data is updated all of the time so searching one day without locating any properties doesn’t mean that searching another day won’t turn up a pile of cash.

Among the most common varieties of assets that often become “unclaimed” in NE are: checking accounts, savings accounts, dividends, health claim payments, life insurance proceeds, telephone deposits, wages, vendor payments, bonds, stocks, miscellaneous outstanding checks, utility deposits, gift certificates, safety deposit boxes. Each of these is deemed unclaimed, and then turned over to the state, after a certain period of inactivity which differs from property type to property type, though generally these “dormancy periods” are somewhere between 1 and 5 years, with a handful of exceptions. With these widely varying dormancy periods, the state is always handling new properties, which means that a person could do a search a day before the state obtains their cash, and that search would find nothing. However, if the person was diligent and searched often, they would find a record of their cash the next time they performed a search.

The need to search regularly is important, not just due to the varying dormancy periods, but due to the fact that the state can not update the unclaimed property list in real time. So even after monies have been turned over to the state, an employee in the State Treasury Office must manually add the listing to their system, which is sometimes not be done for days, weeks, or months. Searching once might never find these assets, but checking regularly ups the odds of discovering the joys of converting missing money in to found money.

These tips will provide you a jumpstart in the race for lost cash, but there are quite a few more that you can learn by copying what pro searchers do, to keep from making the mistakes beginners generally do which wind up screwing up their searches and keeping them from taking back money that is rightfully theirs. Learning from the experts will go a long way in helping reunite you with your money.

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Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas asks for unclaimed funds to go to charity (The News-Herald)
Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and wife Jennifer held a news conference Monday, asking lawyers, judges and corporations in class-action lawsuits to direct millions of dollars in unclaimed class-action settlement money to deserving charities. They joined Dworken & Bernstein Co. L.P.A., a Northeast Ohio-based law firm that has already secured nearly $19 million for nonprofit charities.

Cavs’ ‘Big Z’ Ilgauskas supports efforts by law firm to give … – Cleveland Jewish News
Dworken Bernstein, a Northeast Ohio-based law firm, is establishing a national nonprofit to encourage the use of cy- pres, a legal doctrine that turns unclaimed class-action settlement money into creative philanthropy, benefiting charities and …

Deadline Approaches for Unclaimed Refunds (Brigham Young NewsNet)
With difficult economic times on the rise, every penny hidden in the cracks becomes helpful.

Track It! – Mysuncoast.com
This is your public information resource center. Find out how much your neighbor paid for their house. Look up mug shots on the daily arrest record. See if youve got money coming to you as unclaimed property. Even see if your airline flight is on …

Oregon DSL holding $300 Million in unclaimed money, property – Bend Weekly
SALEM, Ore. — Oregonians, like most Americans, are likely searching for ways to weather the current economic downturn. The state of Oregon – specifically the Department of State Lands (DSL) – may be holding “missing” money for citizens to …

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Among the tens of billions of dollars in unclaimed property in the U.S., the state of Ohio is one of only a few states to be home to more than 1 billion of it. According to the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Unclaimed Funds, that $1 Billion is spread over 3.5 million different accounts. Even though thousands of these unclaimed accounts are returned to the rightful owners each year, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, Ohio takes in another 200,000 accounts each year, worth millions more.

Like in the majority of states, Ohio has trouble returning unclaimed property to its residents for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is disbelief. Putting it simply, most people are simply not aware of forgotten funds and those that have heard of it, often believe it to be some type of scam, unless they hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. Even those people that have accepted the reality of these massive amounts of abandoned assets usually do not know the first thing about tracking down these monies.

The Division of Unclaimed Funds in Ohio holds the following as its mission statement: “To improve the quality of service to our customers by collecting unclaimed property equitably, managing the property wisely and effectively, and returning it timely to the rightful owners.” The Division also provides the following list of some of the most common types of unclaimed property in Ohio – dormant savings and checking accounts, unpaid insurance policies, underlying shares of stock, unreturned rent and utility deposits, forgotten layaway deposits, credit memos, unclaimed wages or commissions, securities, undelivered and uncashed stock dividends, credit balances, uncashed checks, intangible contents of safe deposit boxes.

If someone living in the state of Ohio hopes to be thorough in their attempt to search for missing money, there are a handful of things they can do to help themselves in their efforts. What it all boils down to is knowledge. Learning when and where to search is half the battle. Did you realize that not all unclaimed property websites are the same? Did you realize that the databases are updated sporadically?

If residents of the Buckeye State wish to take their piece of the billion dollar unclaimed property pie, the first rule is to search regularly. If someone performs a search Monday and doesn’t find anything, there’s a good chance they will end their search right there. But what happens if a record for forgotten funds in their name isn’t added until Tuesday? Or the following month? Or year? Each type of unclaimed property has its own period of time which must pass before it can be considered “unclaimed” and handed over to the state. The majority of these dormancy periods are between 1-5 years, but many are longer, so it is clear that tracking down lost money isn’t a one search deal.

More details on the tips above, and dozens of others can be had if a citizen enlists the help of an unclaimed property pro in their search for Ohio unclaimed money, which is highly recommended to make sure that all resources and possible sources of cash have been explored.

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Hopes rise as Massachusetts release unclaimed property list – Union-News Sunday Republican
SPRINGFIELD – The New England Patriots. The La Leche League of Westfield and Southwick. Scrappys Liquor Locker Inc. Three organizations with nothing in common, right? Not according to state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who listed them and 40,000 …

Deadline Approaches for Unclaimed Refunds (Brigham Young NewsNet)
With difficult economic times on the rise, every penny hidden in the cracks becomes helpful.

Online News Poll – WTAP
If youre one of the 4,900 West Virginians who did not file a tax return in 2005, then you may qualify for some extra money. According to the IRS the people of West Virginia, who did not file a return in 2005 are owed nearly 4 million dollars. Many …

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If the Midwest is America’s breadbasket, it might largely be because of KS, who’s Sumner County is called The Wheat Capital of the World. According to recent articles, the KS State Treasury’s Unclaimed Money Division has become a basket for something even more valuable. Not something you can eat, but definitely more desired – American money in the form of Kansas unclaimed money.

More than 20 million dollars in KS unclaimed money is taken in by the state each year. These funds are from forgotten financial assets turned over by banks, insurance companies and other financial entities who are required by law to pass them along to the state after three to five years depending on the type of property. Forgotten funds are from old checking accounts, abandoned savings accounts, bonds, dividends, old paychecks, child support payments, alimony payments, and other similar properties whose owners have somehow forgotten about or inherited without knowing it.

Kansas State Treasurer, Lynn Jenkins, attempts to reunite as much of the unclaimed money in KS with the state’s residents via outreach events and programs for owners of the KS unclaimed money. Her office sets up booths in public places like shopping malls and the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. An average of 700 is given back annually at the fair to mostly surprised owners of the missing money. “We always look forward to attending the fair,” Jenkins noted in a recent press release. “It gives us an opportunity to meet fellow Kansans and for them to search our records for their lost or forgotten cash and property.” “As always, we were very impressed with the fair organizers and the city of Hutchinson,” she went on to say. “The State Fair is a good old fashioned family tradition and part of what makes our state so great.”

According to the NAUPA, the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators,, Treasury Departments in each of the 50 states are holding on to more than $35 billion in unclaimed assets, owed to American citizens. Unclaimed property outreach programs such as the one KS State Treasurer Jenkins promotes are only slightly making up for the lack of a centralized government database for unclaimed assets. Roughly 928,303 owners of about $200 million in unclaimed money in KS are still unaccounted for though, and the KS Unclaimed Money Division of the Treasury Department will hang on to the KS unclaimed money until residents and other citizens nationwide step forward to claim it.

Luckily, people do not need to wait for the KS State Fair to come around in order to see if they are owed KS unclaimed money. The individual states maintain databases for unclaimed money owners now and an unclaimed money search can be done anywhere there’s an Internet connection. So, if you need extra funds ASAP, you can actually do an internet search right now from where you are. The difficult part is doing a search for unclaimed money in multiple state databases (a good idea for those who have lived in various states). A national centralized database for unclaimed money does not exist, so it’s quite easy to go on an internet wild goose chase if you don’t know where and how to look.

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Ill. Lottery Looking For Unclaimed Jackpot Winners – CBS 2 Chicago
The Illinois Lottery is looking for unclaimed jackpot winners. There is $28,000 in unclaimed prizes from last years St. Patricks Day raffle that expire by close of business tomorrow – Tuesday, March 17. If no one comes forward for the cash by …

MONEY: Find Your Unclaimed Funds – NBC4 Columbus
CENTRAL OHIO —Old savings accounts. Forgotten layaways. Monies from a relative. Stocks. Dividends. Insurance policies. Thousands of Ohioans have unclaimed funds. NBC 4 helps you with Found-Money Fridays. Thousands of Ohioans have money they don’t …

Internal Revenue Service seeks 45,100 Michigan residents who have $42 … – Ann Arbor News Blog
Welcome to the Money Matters blog, a place to share your ideas, comments and concerns regarding a very hot topic these days: money. I hope to post items here that may help you with your finances, give you ideas on how to save money and spend it …

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According to Sarah Steelman, Missouri unclaimed money recently grew to the huge sum of $400 million. This mountain of cash is likely to grow, because as with most states, MO takes in more unclaimed money each year than is returned to the citizens. Among the number of reasons why these funds continue to go unclaimed, is the fact that most people aren’t aware of unclaimed money, and the few that are don’t know the correct way to search.

As we see MO unclaimed money numbers approaching a half of $1 billion, the “Show Me State” ought to change its name to the “Show Me The Money State”. So where does all that money come from? There are quite a number of different sources for unclaimed money, a few of the most common are safe deposit boxes, certificates of deposit, abandoned bank accounts, life insurance policies, forgotten stocks, and checks that have not been cashed.

Despite the fact that there isn’t a time limit on claiming forgotten funds, MO only guarantees that they will hold items from safe deposit boxes for 1 year (though they do occassionally hold on to them for longer). According to the MO State Treasury web site, this is how they handle these assets: “Although State Treasurer Steelman would like to keep the contents of safe deposit boxes until an owner or heir is identified, the unclaimed property vault used to store non-monetary items of value (jewelry, coins, etc.) reaches capacity every couple of years. When the vault is full, the Unclaimed Property Division hosts an auction, and the proceeds generated from the sale of items from safe deposit boxes is recorded in the name of the safe deposit box owner. If owners or heirs are identified, they receive the entire proceeds from the sale of the items.”

It’s clear that for those citizens who use (or have used) a safe deposit box, it is very important to get started on your search quickly if the items have a sentimental value to you, but worst case scenario is that you will get the proceeds if your items sell. Luckily for the rest of us, most of the money doesn’t come from unclaimed property auctions.

Whether you are a former or current MO resident, or even in some cases, haven’t ever resided in MO at all, the odds that lost money is owed to you, are in your favor. Of course the awesome part about money derived from unclaimed money is that the assets already rightfully belongs to people. This means there are no games or gambling involved. The only thing keeping missing cash from turning in to found cash, for most people, is the knowledge about how to search, and where to search.

A number of myths exist about unclaimed money. The most common is the idea that performing just one internet search on any old web site constitutes a full search. The problem is most of these “official” searches, are anything but, and their info is quite often not current if not completely wrong, and only serves as a sales hook. One of the other most common myths is the idea that the state’s databases are up to date and accurate.

There is not a single law that dictates when each state, including MO, has to update their unclaimed money databases. Because of this, one of the best things people can do is search regularly. If your money has only been determined to be “unclaimed” recently, it likely wouldn’t appear in MO’s system until it is first been handed over by the account holder, and then whenever the state treasury office adds the record.

To learn more about these unclaimed money search obstacles, and a number of others, and it is important to seek out expert assistance in your quest for forgotten funds, to ensure that you reclaim all possible cash owed to you.

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Unclaimed tax returns could help I.E. residents – Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
In this brutal recession, tax credits seem even more important as the government tries to get money flowing through the economy. Millions of dollars in tax return money for low-income Inland Empire residents could become Uncle Sams if it isnt …

Didnt file a 2005 tax return? IRS may have some money for you – Access North GA
ATLANTA – Unclaimed refunds totaling approximately $1.3 billion are awaiting over a million people who failed to file a federal income tax return for 2005. In Georgia nearly $39 million in unclaimed refunds awaits about 44,000 individuals. However …

Do You Have A Winning Lottery Ticket? (CBS 2 Los Angeles)
Do you have a winning lottery ticket and don’t know it? It’s possible. The state is holding on to hundreds of thousands of dollars in Fantasy 5, Super Lotto and Mega Millions jackpots unclaimed by people who forgot to check their numbers.

SPECIAL REPORT (PART TWO): Claim Your Cash – KEPR
Its more than just finding some change in your couch cushions, Action News is helping you find hundreds even thousands of dollars you didnt even know you had. The problem with unclaimed cash is that you dont know its there unless you start …

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I was searching the internet recently for the latest news and an article on modern day treasure hunters caught my eye. It appears that for some Americans who have metal detectors, looking for treasure in the FL Keys has turned in to more than a hobby and has made some serious money. Rusted antiques and occasionally gold and silver bullion from sunken Spanish galleons are just some of the finds. Very interesting news.

Burried treasures aren’t the only riches available for citizens hoping to go on a hunt for treasure though. After reading the article on treasure hunting scuba divers, I saw another news post about Alabama unclaimed money, stating that the state treasurer has recently given away as much as $23 million of it to the state’s residents in just one year’s time. Well really, the phrase ‘given away’ is kind of not accurate – ‘given back’ is the better verb to use as the Ala. missing money actually belonged to the people that received it in the first place. The large value of these assets given back may be due to the State Treasurer’s Unclaimed Money Program that attempts to heighten the awareness of residents about abandoned cash. Lists of the names of the owners of these funds are placed in public places like state fairs and shopping malls. Booths are also set up by employees of the Ala. Treasury Department’s Unclaimed Money Div. in these public places – providing free help in doing an Ala. search.

When residents relocate or find new jobs, they often lost track of assets such as stock dividends, uncollected salary checks, income tax refunds, etc. by not leaving a proper forwarding address. People also pass away without leaving a will and their assets are supposed to be given to their closest living relative who sometimes can’t be located due to a change of address or name. Items from contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes are also deemed unclaimed property under Ala. law. These items are passed along to the state after a ‘dormancy period’, which varies state to state. The dormancy period for unclaimed property in Ala. is five years for most types of financial assets and 1 year for salary checks. Items forgotten in safe deposit boxes are passed along to the state and are auctioned off to the public and the money is returned to the state treasurer’s office where it can still be claimed by the true owners at any time in the future.

According to Kay Ivey, Alabama State Treasurer, “We’ve still got $373 million that belongs to people in every nook and cranny in Alabama,” and she adds “Go online or call us, and if you find your name and you can prove you are who you say you are, my staff and I would love to send you a check.”

According to experts 70% of Americans are due a portion of the more than 35 billion dollars in unclaimed property, which is currently held by the individual Treasury Departments across the country in all 50 states. A citizen can have abandoned assets in several states if he or she has relocated a lot or if they have several relatives across the country. It’s important to do a thorough money search to keep from missing out on your lost cash.

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IRS: Unclaimed 05 tax returns for Oregonians total about $16M – kgw.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Need a little extra money? The federal government has $16 million laying around for some 21,000 Oregonians. The Internal Revenue Service reports that there are about 21,000 Oregon residents who did not file a federal income tax …

IRS has more than $105 Million for Texans who have not filed ’05 taxes (The Atascocita Observer)
Unclaimed refunds totaling more than $105 million are waiting for 103,000 Texans who did not file a federal income tax return for 2005, the Internal Revenue Service announced today. However, to collect the money, a return for 2005 must be filed with the IRS no later than April 15, 2009.

Oklahomans have $14.5 million in unclaimed tax refunds from 2005 – KFOR
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — There is about $14.5 million in unclaimed tax refunds from 2005 due to about 17,000 Oklahomans. And the deadline to claim the money is April 15. Internal Revenue Service spokesman David Stell says the money is income taxes …

Missed filing 2005 taxes? $609 refund could be waiting – Detroit Free Press
About 45,000 people in Michigan may want to file a 2005 tax return to get an average unclaimed refund of $609. To collect that money, taxpayers would need to file that 2005 return by April 15. If the 2005 return is not filed by then, the unclaimed …

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The state of California’s unclaimed money program takes in about $300 million each year. Why does it matter to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or was a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you knew it or not), part of that massive pile of CA forgotten funds could easily be yours!

Under the CA unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets like forgotten savings and checking accounts, cash and stock dividends, mineral deposits, uncashed checks and money orders, state of California unclaimed tax refunds, salary checks, gift certificates, and other assets are handed over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t come for them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies widely from state to state, but in CA it is three years. These unclaimed monies then get moved to the CA unclaimed property division, where they stay in the state’s general fund until they are returned to the rightful owners. This is where state employees who handled CA unclaimed cash were criticized recently. Seems that they were eager to track down and take hold of the lost assets from the various establishments holding them but showed less interest in contacting the owners in the CA unclaimed money list.

One of the primary reasons for the government’s inability give back forgotten money to its owners, they say, is that they can not be tracked down. The problem is, would would ever think that people like ZsaZsa Gabor, Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Gerri Halliwell, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Sandler and Marlon Brando would be difficult to track down? Those names and the names of a number of other celebrities are just a few of the names in the CA missing money database but they have not been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They are all owed checks for unclaimed money by CA amounting from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just shows CA state officials’ interest in keeping this money in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficits for as long as they can. In fact, there was a recent ruling by a judge on CA abandoned cash, saying that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a new policy of returning it to the actual owners was adopted.

The total dollar amount for these funds in California averages five billion dollars annually – just imagine how much interest this accrues for the state! Sacramento attorney Bill Palmer who has battled in numerous cases involving California unclaimed money, has said that the state’s program was intended to be a lost and found of sorts for Californians. Sadly, it was turned into a profit generating ‘business’ in the past few years.

The ban on the taking of property by California has since been removed and the new California State Controller, John Chiang, is making extra efforts in the form of widespread changes in improving how his office deals with California unclaimed money. There is still a great need though for Californians and Americans in all states across the U.S. to learn about the presence of these properties and on how to do a thorough search for them and take back what belongs to them.

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Call Kurtis Investigates: Keeping Your Cash – CBS 13/CW31 Sacramento
Some call it theft. California is using your unclaimed property to keep the state running during the budget battle. A Call Kurtis Investigation reveals how the state refused to return $13 million dollars. If you dont touch money in your bank account …

OUR VIEW: You may have unclaimed money – Tonawanda News
Notice went out Monday from the Internal Revenue Service that more than a million taxpayers may be missing out on unclaimed tax refunds from 2005. Now, we know most of you don’t like hearing from the IRS in the first place, but this may be some …

IRS holding $83M in unclaimed tax refunds (The Journal News)
At a time when money is tight, more than 76,800 New Yorkers are neglecting to collect $83 million in federal tax refunds that Uncle Sam owes them for the 2005 tax year.

Missed filing 2005 taxes? $609 refund could be waiting – Detroit Free Press
About 45,000 people in Michigan may want to file a 2005 tax return to get an average unclaimed refund of $609. To collect that money, taxpayers would need to file that 2005 return by April 15. If the 2005 return is not filed by then, the unclaimed …

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Philly soft pretzels, TastyKakes, cheese steaks and chocolates are not the only nice things you might find in PA. There is also the steel of course, Christmas trees (The Christmas Tree capital of the world in Indiana County), the Liberty Bell, and last but certainly not least… huge piles of money. Well, cash from Pennsylvania unclaimed money to be exact. You read that right – roughly $1 billion in unclaimed property is with the PA State Treasury and it is just waiting to be claimed by the residents it belongs to.

Owners of PA unclaimed properties are usually residents (or former residents) of the state who’ve either forgotten about or lost track of their financial assets by changing addresses and jobs. People often forget to leave behind a forwarding address after they move and this ultimately results in undelivered mail which can contain tax refund checks and the like. Escheat laws dictate that lost financial assets be passed along to the hands of the state after a certain number of years wherein they go unclaimed.

According to the PA State Treasury, “Each year, Treasury receives millions of dollars in unclaimed property from abandoned bank accounts, forgotten stocks, checks that have not been cashed, certificates of deposit, life insurance policies, safe deposit boxes, and other sources. Treasury maintains custody of this unclaimed property, holding assets indefinitely, until it is returned to its rightful owners.” Lost assets can also come from traveler’s checks, money orders, expired gift certificates, uncollected or unpaid salaries and wages, and safe-deposit box contents. As a matter of fact, $157,290 in unpaid wages and salaries were reported to have been owed by the H.J. Heinz company recently and failed to report this to the State. Under PA Unclaimed Property Law, unpaid payroll funds held by companies have to be handed to the Pennsylvania Treasury every 2 years and every 5 years for unclaimed properties like uncashed company checks and stock shares abandoned by shareholders. Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert Casey recently stated, “By law, all businesses, financial institutions and legal entities must report and return all unclaimed property to the Commonwealth.”

The PA Unclaimed Money Division and the State Treasurer’s Office makes an effort to notify owners of unclaimed property in PA advertising campaigns, through letters, and state-run unclaimed money databases. “Annual advertising and letter campaigns are just some of the methods Treasury employs to seek the owners of over $1 billion in unclaimed property. Treasury sends representatives to statewide public events year-round, including malls, consumer expos and fairs. Treasury also works with members of the General Assembly in helping determine if their constituents have unclaimed property”, According to a statement from the Treasury of PA.

Considering the massive size of the PA unclaimed property heap though, it is obvious that the state’s efforts are inadequate for the large number (tens of thousands) of citizens owed unclaimed monies annually. If you think you or a relative might have unclaimed property in PA or other states, now would be the best time to get some forgotten money back in your pockets. Do an unclaimed property search now!

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OUR VIEW: You may have unclaimed money – Tonawanda News
Notice went out Monday from the Internal Revenue Service that more than a million taxpayers may be missing out on unclaimed tax refunds from 2005. Now, we know most of you don’t like hearing from the IRS in the first place, but this may be some …

Midland Lutheran has scholarship money to spare – Lincoln Journal Star
Here’s a conundrum you wouldn’t expect in the middle of a recession: Midland Lutheran College in Fremont is sitting on nearly a half-million dollars in unclaimed scholarship funds. Make no mistake, leaders at the private college of 700-plus …

March is ‘Breaking Bad’ on cable, big month for ratings – New Haven Register
If the TV news shows suddenly look a little breathless or obsessed with American Idol or other network fluff, it’s because we’re in a sweeps ratings time. The February sweeps period was postponed to March 5 to April 1, since the digital …

IRS has $105 million in unclaimed refunds from 2005 available for Texans (Beaumont Enterprise)
The Internal Revenue Service has more than $105 million in unclaimed refunds for 103,000 Texans who did not file a federal income tax return for 2005, the government agency announced Wednesday.

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The Beaver State is known for being the home of the massive, 11,000 foot Mt. Hood, but it is home to a lesser known mountain that is likely of greater interest to Oregon residents. As it stands today, Oregon unclaimed money totals more than 250 million dollars. That’s right, more than a quarter of a billion dollars, owed to more than a million residents. This translates in to approximately 30% of Oregonians, which means the chances that any given citizen is owed a chunk of this cash are 1 in 3.

Each year, the state of Oregon takes in between 30 and 40 million dollars in unclaimed property, but only returns approximately $10 million to the actual owners. Since the owners of the other $20 to $30 million weren’t located, that money gets added to the total, so that $250 million only stands to grow. While it is certainly hard to believe that 1 out of every 3 Oregon residents are due a claim, these monies really come from sources that we all use everyday. The OR Department of State Lands describes some of the most common sources as follows:”Unclaimed property includes savings accounts, checking accounts, unpaid wages or commissions, stocks, dividends proceeds, refunds, money orders, paid-up life insurance policies, utility deposits and contents of safe deposit boxes.”

Each type of asset can be classified as “unclaimed” after it has been deemed abandoned. To be deemed abandoned, the asset must sit inactive for a period of 1, 2, 3, or 5 years, or in less common cases, 7 or 15 years (for money orders and traveler’s checks, respectively). Generally speaking though, 1-5 years is the assumed dormancy period for the majority of these monies. After the dormancy period has passed, the holder is required to pass the abandoned assets along to the state, which then holds it until the actual owner is able to find it.

The reasons that it is hard to reunite unclaimed property with the rightful owners are numerous, but they usually all come down to a lack of knowledge about where and when to search. While a lot of sites might claim to be “official” or say they offer a complete database, very few actually provide legit records, and even the actual state listings are quite unreliable. Once an asset is turned over to the state, someone at the state has to manually add the record in to the abandoned assets database, but this isn’t done immediately, so it is good practice to check back often. On top of that, because of all the differing dormancy period lengths, a person could perform a search on a given day and then give up if they found no claims, when if they had only searched again the next year they might have discovered a significant claim that simply had a longer dormancy period.

When looking for lost money, there’s a bit more to it than just plugging a name in to the search tool of any old website. Issues that plague new searchers are easy to overcome, but far too many go out on their own and are not able to track down money that is owed to them, which is why the totals grow continually all across the nation. Investing a little time studying professional search practices can greatly increase the odds of filling our pockets with money we had forgotten about.

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Patriots make states abandoned property list – Nashua Telegraph
The New England Patriots, former Boston Bruins star Ray Bourque, and baseball analyst Peter Gammons are among the 40,000 businesses, individuals and charities to have unclaimed money or property being held by Massachusetts. The new list of unclaimed …

RI lottery says thousands in prize money unclaimed (Boston Globe)
Rhode Island residents are being urged to check any old lottery tickets lying around because they may be holding on to a winner.

Unclaimed Bodies Increase In Struggling Economy (WHIO-TV 7 Dayton)
The struggling economy has led to an increase in unclaimed bodies at the morgue in downtown Dayton.

State says it’s got $9 billion in unclaimed funds (WRGB Albany)
There’s $9 billion in unclaimed funds floating in the state coffers, and some of that money could be yours. “New York has $9 billion in unclaimed fund accounts,” said state comptroller Tom DiNapoli in a statement. “We want to return this money to its rightful owners.”

McLennan County treasurer says there’s plenty of unclaimed money on the books (Waco Tribune-Herald)
By Regina Dennis

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Have you ever loaned cash to an acquaintance, and because they were an acquaintance, you didn’t pester them about paying you back quickly? Then, as time went on, did you forget all about the money? Well, maybe you haven’t, but millions of Florida citizens do each and every year, only their “friends” are companies holding dormant savings and checking accounts, uncashed checks, interest dividends, utility deposits, to name a few.

After the companies and financial institutions lose contact with persons associated with these accounts, they turn them over to the state Department of Financial Services, and the funds, totaling hundreds of millions each and every year, become what is known as unclaimed money or unclaimed property. Florida unclaimed money never actually belongs to the state, but they are required to hold it until the rightful owner steps forward to claim it.

The process of turning that missing money in to found cash is easy if you know what you are doing. Many people make the mistake of searching only one time at some third party site that made inaccurate claims about its unclaimed property database. Many people only search FLA’s unclaimed money records. On top of that, one of the most common blunders people make time and time again, is only searching one time.

Searching only one time doesn’t factor in the fact that in accordance with varying dormancy periods on forgotten cash, these assets are turned over at different times. This means that if you attempt to search for unclaimed cash in FLA only today, but your funds haven’t been turned over to the state until the following day (or next week, month, or year), you’d never be able to find it. For that reason (among others), missing money searches should stay away from websites that charge “per search”.

Many people hunting for Florida lost assets simply do not recognize the fact that their cash might be in the hands of gov offices in states other than Florida. What if your insurance companies or a former employer’s corporate headquarters were in states other than Florida? When the dormancy periods expire, your unclaimed government money will be placed in the custody of those states, so digging through Florida missing money database would be pointless.

Even though FLA’s $1 billion is a massive amount, looking at the records of other states often is important in the Sunshine State in particular, because the state is home to so many people who came from other states. It is not a secret that FLA is home to an ever growing number of retirees, but most didn’t live there for their entire lives.

Even though FLA does you the courtesy of not putting any time limits on claiming your money, most people would obviously choose to have their money as soon as possible. Beyond that, if the cash belonged to a relative who had passed, the process of showing you’re the rightful heir can take a bit more effort than taking back your own forgotten funds, so it is of the utmost importance to get started ASAP.

Most people think it’s not possible for them to have ever abandoned or forgotten money, but you’d be surprised. In reality the majority of people are due some type of unclaimed money, so people owe it to themselves to get searching.

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Patriots, Bourque among 40,000 listed as having unclaimed property in … – Minneapolis Star Tribune
BOSTON – The New England Patriots, former Boston Bruins star Ray Bourque, and baseball analyst Peter Gammons are among the 40,000 businesses, individuals and charities to have unclaimed money or property being held by Massachusetts. The new list of …

Life companies sit with unclaimed benefits money pot (Independent Online)
Many life assurance companies are costing policyholders who have not claimed their benefits at maturity millions of rand every year.

Winning R.I. lottery ticket remains unclaimed (NBC 10 Providence)
A Wild Money ticket worth nearly $56,000 is about to expire.

Tax help available for lower-income residents (MyCentralJersey.com)
In the “Free Tax Advice” article that ran in last Sunday’s Courier News, you mentioned the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). I believe it’s critical in these difficult times to make lower-income Americans aware that they may well be eligible for the EITC. Tens of millions of dollars in EITC go unclaimed each year. The EITC could reduce or eliminate their income taxes, or even get them money back.

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