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.
Tags: id, id missing money, idaho unclaimed assets, idahounclaimedmoney, idaho unclaimedproperty, idaho unclaimed property, id unclaimed money, idaho unclaimed funds, id unclaimed cash, unclaimed money in idaho, id unclaimed, idaho, id unclaimed funds, id found money, id unclaimed assets, idaho missing money, idaho unclaimed money, idunclaimedmoney, id unclaimedmoney, idaho found money, idaho unclaimed cash, unclaimed money in id, id unclaimed money search, id lost money, id unclaimed property, idaho unclaimed money search, idaho unclaimedmoney, idaho lost money, idaho unclaimed
-
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.
Entries (RSS)