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Despite giving back a record $26.2 million in Connecticut unclaimed money in 2006, there are still tens of millions of dollars in abandoned assets waiting to be found and claimed by the rightful owners – average people who simply abandoned or forgot about these monies for any number of reasons.

Recent efforts by the Connecticut State Treasurer’s “The Big List” program have given back 100 million dollars back to Connecticut residents in just the past 8 years, but more money continued to come in than went out so the mounds of unclaimed funds held by the gov. keep on growing. Due to the fact that new forgotten funds outpace the return rate, the odds of finding a claim for any given name are getting better all the time.

The majority of people wonder how unclaimed funds could be real, because the fact that across the country there are billions of dollars waiting to be found by the rightful owners simply seems unbelievable. Why would these people abandon their cash? Are they nuts? No, they’re just normal people, and it has been estimated that 7 out of every 10 Americans are owed some kind of claim!

So how is all this cash being abandoned without the owners knowing it? In most cases it is as simple as to remembering a savings or checking account that wasn’t a primary account, or not leaving a forwarding address to all the necessary people when a person moves. Additionally, the State Treasurer’s web site lists the following as common kinds of lost properties in Connecticut: safe deposit box contents, stocks, life insurance policies, travelers’ checks or money orders, deposits, uncashed checks, and bonds or mutual fund shares.

As these various types of accounts lay untouched past their unique dormancy periods (unique for each account type and each state), they are handed over to the state for safe keeping until the rightful owner steps forward to claim them. So if the dormancy period on a given account does not run out for another few years, a person searching today will not find a record of their abandoned assets, despite the fact that it’s out there in pre-escheat, meaning the dormancy period has not yet expired. Additionally, states do not have a uniform law mandating when the records are actually added to their databases so a person could in theory search and not find anything, while the record is added the following day, week, month or year. The only real way to be thorough about your search is to search often.

On top of limiting themselves to a single search, inexperienced searchers often search only the state they live in, not knowing that there is a possibility for unclaimed funds owed to them in states they’ve never lived in or even passed through, for a variety of reasons such as employers’ corporate headquarters or insurance company headquarters.

The issues noted above, and many others, can be avoided once people learn about proper search tactics. Seeking the advice and guidance of experienced unclaimed asset finders often makes the difference in whether or not a person with limited knowledge in these matters finds all cash belonging to them or not.

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$40 million waiting to be claimed from state (WLOX-TV Biloxi)
JACKSON, MS (WLOX) – Mississippi has $40,000,000 waiting to give out, and some of it could be yours. The money is in the state’s unclaimed property fund, which is held by the state treasury until the rightful owners are located.

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Denver CBS affiliate KCNC TV reported in May that State Treasurer Cary Kennedy currently holds more than $50 million in Colorado unclaimed money. CO missing funds most commonly come from things such as , utility refunds, dormant checking accounts, oil and gas royalties, stocks and bonds, uncashed insurance checks. Citizens who might have held one or more of these accounts or other similar types of accounts are encouraged to look for unclaimed funds.

While it is difficult for most people to believe that their fellow citizens could just “forget” or abandon cash that belongs to them, it is surprisingly common. It is so common in fact that many estimate that 7 in 10 Americans are due some type of claim, and CO residents aren’t an exception.

Despite the fact that there are tens of billions of dollars in unclaimed funds across the country (tens of millions in CO alone), the vast majority of it is never claimed and millions more are added in every state annually. The main reason is the fact a majority of people haven’t ever heard of unclaimed funds and the handful that have don’t have any idea about how to find them and claim what is rightfully theirs.

One of the first issues that many searchers run in to is not knowing where they need to search. The truth is, there is no one website to search on. In fact not all searches can be done online, so if you limit yourself to just the computer, you could be missing out on some cash.

Beyond not knowing what site to search, a lot of people looking for missing cash believe that one search is all you need to do. Aside from the fact that there is not one website that houses all claims, all sites are continuously updating their records and the list of names of people due a claim gets larger annually in each state. In order to be confident that you have located all potential claims you ought to search regularly. Many people don’t find claims that were added to their state’s database because they were added the day, week, month, or year after they searched.

A lot of people who don’t live in and haven’t ever even been to CO are also owed CO unclaimed funds for a number of reasons. For example, if a person works for a company in their home state, but the company is incorporated in CO, things like abandoned payroll checks might be held by CO’s state treasury, while their home state won’t have any record of these funds. A similar problem arises when people have insurance policies through insurance companies that are headquartered out of state. This is yet another reason that one search will not cut it.

Any way you slice it, the state of CO is home to more hills than those Rockie Mountains, it is home to a multi-million dollar heap of abandoned assets. We can all agree that the people are much better at managing their own money than any government agency, so anyone who believes they might have money coming to them need to take some initiative and get started on their search. Using ideas from expert locators can keep people from making beginners mistakes that would otherwise stop them from locating their money.

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Winning Mega Millions ticket unclaimed (WRIC 8 News Richmond)
Associated Press – February 18, 2009 6:55 PM ET ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – Check those old Mega Millions tickets. Virginia lottery officials say a winning Mega Millions ticket worth…

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Usually when people think of the state of Idaho, what comes to mind? Potatoes of course. Lots and lots of potatoes. But there is also a huge pile of something else that you might say is “no small potatoes” – Idaho unclaimed money. Idaho’s lost money fund has swollen to a whopping $40 million and counting and all of this cash belongs to residents wise enough to locate it and claim it.

The majority of people find it difficult to believe that average Idaho citizens have somehow just abandoned $40 million, and that Americans across the nation have abandoned almost $40 billion (yes, with a “b”, billion), but believe it or not, the odds that any given person is owed unclaimed property are better than the odds that they are not due a claim. The main reason for this is that these missing monies come from so many different sources. According to the web site of the Idaho State Tax Commission, the dept. charged with handling these assets: “These include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, bank accounts, uncashed payroll checks, utility deposits, traveler’s checks, contents from deposit boxes, and more. Most of the assets are ones that people didn’t know they had or just forgot about, and sometimes they are worth thousands of dollars.”

In order for money to be considered abandoned or “unclaimed”, it has to lie dormant for a period of time that is specific to each type of asset and state. Idaho considers most kinds abandoned after five years of dormancy, though many are available for claiming after only one year.

There are a handful of reasons why assets may go unclaimed, but it’s generally simple as forgetting to leave a forwarding address for financial institutions or previous employers. If a piece of mail is sent back to the sender, and the rightful owner does not contact the sending party within the dormancy period, the holder is required by law to hand the funds over to the state.

The issue Idaho has, as do all other states, is reuniting lost money with its true owners. Despite state awareness efforts and popular media coverage, the majority of people are still just not aware of unclaimed property. Even the few that are in the know generally do not have a clue where to start their search. There are a number of people out there searching, but even those people do not know all the tactics they need to utilize to increase their odds of locating claims.

For the reasons stated above, Idaho is now holding over $40 million in unclaimed property, and that number will almost certainly grow, because more and more money is handed over to the state each year and it outpaces the amounts returned to the citizens. For this reason, it’s extremely important that people who are interested in looking for missing monies, learn how expert finders find these monies, and then put these same tactics in to action in their own attempts. There are right ways to search, and wrong ways to search, and until people learn the difference there are a number of hurdles that can get between them and their money.

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The state lists unclaimed properties (Bureau County Republican)
PRINCETON — The Illinois Treasurer’s office is looking for about 2,800 residents whose address, or last known address, was in Bureau County. Those people have some unclaimed cash or property coming to them.

$200,000 Powerball Ticket Unclaimed (FOX 9 News Twin Cities)
A Powerball ticket sold in Stearns County in February 2008 will go unclaimed at 5 p.m. Friday, costing one Minnesota lottery player $200,000.

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