Archive for March, 2009

Believe it or not, the mainland states are not the only ones getting a piece of the multi-billion dollar unclaimed funds bonanza. Hawaii unclaimed money has now reached the huge amount of 130 million dollars! The best thing is, this money isn’t a gamble, citizens are either due a claim or they are not, and if they are, the only obstacle standing between them and their lost cash is the knowledge of how to locate the money.

Of the dozens of potential sources of HI unclaimed funds, the Department of Budget and Finance lists the most common varieties as contents of safe deposit boxes, stock certificates, uncashed checks, and dormant (no activity for 5 years) checking and savings accounts.

HI continues to have a huge amount of money remaining unclaimed due to the fact that people simply have not accepted the reality of unclaimed funds. Too often people assume missing money is a scam, based on the old “there’s no such thing as free money” so many times. Among those few who are aware of these forgotten funds, most are not informed about the right way to perform a complete search for them.

Even for those few who have been able to track down their funds, the state of HI has them jumping through so many hoops to prove they are who they say they are, that they are very often left not reunited with their money, despite the fact that they know that it’s there. HI insists that owners of unclaimed funds to have a number of identifying documents as evidence that they are the rightful owners of the cash, and to prove that they in fact lived at the last known addresses listed in the records they have on file. The moral of the story is that if you are attempting to take back lost money in HI, keep records as diligently as possible, or the process of taking your money back might be more of a headache than it’s worth.

Aside from having a hard time proving their identities to the state, citizens of HI have a number of problems that can inhibit their unclaimed asset searches. For example, most Hawaiian’s who have previously resided in any other state usually do not realize that the state of HI would have absolutely no record of any lost funds from any other state. So if someone living in HI once resided in Ohio, they would need to search Ohio’s records, or the records of any other state they’d resided in.

Beyond just reaching outside of the Hawaiian Islands to track down money owed to them, a lot of people still have trouble finding their money because they simply do not know how to go about their search within the state. One of the largest problems is that people often search only one time and then never revisit the matter again. The issue with doing this, is the fact that any monies that have notbeen handed over to the state, because their dormancy periods have not expired, will not show up in any state records, because the state does not have any idea that they exist. Many times even after the assets have been handed over, the state hasn’t added the listing to their unclaimed funds list, so once again, a state record search would be fruitless. In both of these cases, a searcher could try to search the next day, week or month, and find their record, but the majority of people just quit after a single search.

For more tips on overcoming issues that often prevent searchers from claiming their unclaimed funds, Hawaiian citizens would benefit greatly from seeking help from an unclaimed funds expert to aid them traveling through the maze of taking back what already belongs to them.

Tags: hi unclaimed money search, , , , , hawaii unclaimed money search, , , , , , , , , , , , , , hi unclaimed money, , , , , , , , , hawaii unclaimed money

-

Police auction earns money for Cobham basketballers - Surrey Comet
Unclaimed lost property has been auctioned off by Surrey Police and put towards improving a basketball area for children in Cobham. Ken Purssey, from Cobham and Downside Residents’ Association, was delighted with the £1,500 donation, which will be …

Benton Co. Considers Problem Of Unclaimed Dead (KHBS - KHOG Fort Smith - Fayetteville)
Benton County officials are considering regulations for the infrequent occasion when no one claims the body of a dead person.

IRS has $31 million for Arizonans who have not filed a 2005 tax return (Eastern Arizona Courier)
Contributed Article Unclaimed refunds totaling more than $31 million are awaiting 36,900 Arizonans who did not file a federal income tax return for 2005, the Internal Revenue Service recently announced.

Free check to see if Government owes you money (Armidale Express)
NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal warned people to be wary of ‘money recovery’ companies charging fees for a service the NSW Government provides for free.

Federation of American Consumers and Travelers Helps Consumers Re … - 24-7PressRelease.com
According to the Federation of American Consumers and Travelers (FACT), state governments across the nation are holding more than $30 billion in unclaimed consumer property. EDWARDSVILLE, IL, March 26, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ — According to the …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

Iowa is known to the rest of the nation as the state where presidential caucuses are held, but there is more to the Buckeye State than pandering politicians. There are millions of dollars in Iowa unclaimed money owed to regular citizens who only need to come forward and take back what technically already belongs to them. IA and states across the country keep on taking in millions of dollars in unclaimed money each year, and the amount taken in easily exceeds the amount given back to the rightful owners. That means that the missing money pile grows larger every day giving greater odds of finding a claim to all citizens.

A program called “The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt”, which is handled by the office of State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald, deals with IA’s unclaimed money. According to The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt’s web site, the most common varieties of missing money include (among many others): dormant bank accounts, utility refunds, uncashed checks, unclaimed wages, safe-deposit boxes, insurance dividends, stock certificates and dividends. Residents of Iowa who have or have had at some point one or more of these kinds of accounts have an excellent chance of discovering cash owed to them, and are urged to search frequently.

IA is what is called a “custodial state” in how it handles unclaimed money. This means that the state never actually takes ownership of forgotten funds, they just hold them indefinitely until the true owner, or a descendant (if the owner has passed away), finds and claims them. This is great because a lot of people aren’t even aware of the lost money phenomenon yet and those that are generally still don’t know the proper way to search. Not having a time period under which a claim must be made can put minds at ease for people just hearing about these properties.

While most people have still not heard of unclaimed money, those that have often dismiss it out of hand because they simply can’t believe that there are literally tens of billions of dollars owed to citizens across the country. The sad reality is, these people are letting their own cynicism stand between them and their money! Divorce, death, clerical errors, and moving without leaving a forwarding address are some of the most common reasons that money is abandoned, and it’s surprising how often tiny things can allow huge amounts of cash to slip through the cracks.

While there are a number of of people who do know about unclaimed money, the vast majority of them don’t know where to start their search. Some people will tell you that you can just type your name in to any old site boasting a missing money database one time and get a thumbs up or down. This is false. First of all, you need to be sure the list of records comes from the state you are trying to search. Next, you have to be aware that every type of unclaimed money has its own unique “dormancy period”, or time which must go by before it must be handed over to the state. Because of this, assets are handed over all the time, so it is necessary to search often, as we can not be certain when the state’s official records will be updated.

The best way to be sure you’re completely informed about how to perform an exhaustive unclaimed money search is to study how the pros do it, and then put those tactics to work for you in your own treasure hunt.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , iowa unclaimed money search, , , , iowa unclaimed money, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

-

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 …

How to Find Lost Cash on MissingMoney.com - Associated Content
MissingMoney.com has been getting the celebrity treatment on the CBS Early Show and with $33 billion unclaimed, who wouldnt look for some missing money? This author tries her luck at the MissingMoney site … Did you move and misplace your bank …

Many Scholarships Go Unclaimed In Baltimore - WJZ
Millions of dollars in college scholarships go unclaimed every year nationwide and right here in Baltimore. Gigi Barnett reports despite the economic slump, one local foundation is having a tough time finding applicants for the Jerry Turner and Al …

Oregon has millions in unclaimed money for residents, heirs - kgw.com
Finding your money is easy. KGW visited a secure vault in Salem where the state keeps unclaimed property. The place was packed with treasures ranging from gold bars to Rolex watches. Unclaimed property coordinator Cheryl Gladden showed us $40,000 in …

State releases unclaimed property list - WPRI
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Are you missing any money? You may be. In fact, thousands of Rhode Islanders are. Today, the state treasurers office released its list of people who are on their unclaimed money list. More than 14,000 people are on the …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: , , , , north carolina unclaimed money, , , north carolina unclaimed money search, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , nc unclaimed property, ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: , , , , , nebraska unclaimed money, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , nebraska unclaimed money search, , , , , ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: unclaimed money in ohio, ohio unclaimed money search, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ohio unclaimed money, , , ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , kansas unclaimed money, ks unclaimed funds, , unclaimed money in kansas, , , , , kansas unclaimed property, , , , , , , , , , kansas unclaimed money search

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: , , mo unclaimed money search, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , missouri unclaimed money, mo unclaimed money, , , , missouri unclaimed money search, , , , ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: alabama missing money, , , alabama unclaimed money, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , alabama unclaimed money search, , ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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.

Tags: , , , , , california missing money, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

-

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 …

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »

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!

Tags: , , pennsylvania unclaimed money search, , , , pennsylvania unclaimed money, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , unclaimed money in pennsylvania,

-

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.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments No Comments »