Posts Tagged “california-unclaimed-assets”

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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IRD makes list of people owed money – NZCity
Thousands of people could be better off than they thought, because of unclaimed money being held by the taxman. The IRD has released an online list of 15,200 people, all of whom are due a pay-out. Between them they are owed $14,427,789, most of which …

$14m in unclaimed money – IRD – Stuff
Over 15,000 people are owed more than $14 million in unclaimed money, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) says. There were 15,200 people who were owed a total of $14,427,789, IRD customer operations group manager, Heather Daly said. The names were …

Indiana Unclaimed (Indiana’s NewsCenter)
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was in Fort Wayne today to remind Hoosiers to collect unclaimed funds.

Forgotten Funds: Check For Unclaimed Cash – MSNBC
There may be a check with your name on it, just waiting to be claimed. What could the cash be from? Unclaimed money and property, refund checks that weren’t cashed, money from bank accounts that weren’t closed out properly and items in abandoned …

Is unclaimed cash waiting for you? – ABC Action News
TAMPA BAY, FL — We’re all trying to ring up less at the register and cut back. Wife and mother Dee Carmichael is no different. “Because you never know if you could be the next one that has a spouse that may lose his job,” she said. Mark …

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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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Unclaimed funds? Now get interest (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
COLUMBUS – The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that taxpayers are entitled to interest when they recover unclaimed funds from the state.

Ohio must pay interest on unclaimed funds – Cincinnati.com
The Ohio Supreme Court has handed a little tax-season gift to thousands of people who have drawn money from the state’s unclaimed-funds account over the past 18 years. People who have received funds from the account since 1991 are entitled to …

Nearly $40M in Wisconsin Lottery prizes unclaimed – Chippewa Herald
APPLETON, Wis. – Wisconsin Lottery winners have failed to claim $38.3 million in prizes in the past 11 years and another $3 million will likely go unclaimed this fiscal year, spokesman Andrew Bohage said. Those figures don’t include unclaimed scratch …

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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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Bill aims to return unclaimed bond money to Vermonters (The Barre Montpelier Times Argus)
A bill in Congress could mean the return of as much as $31 million in matured unredeemed savings bonds to Vermonters. … – By BRUCE EDWARDS Rutland Herald STAFF

Nearly $40M in Wisconsin Lottery prizes unclaimed – Chippewa Herald
APPLETON, Wis. – Wisconsin Lottery winners have failed to claim $38.3 million in prizes in the past 11 years and another $3 million will likely go unclaimed this fiscal year, spokesman Andrew Bohage said. Those figures don’t include unclaimed scratch …

Unclaimed property tops $600 million (Tacoma Daily Index)
If you had a $100 rebate check, wouldn’t you cash it? If your employer owed you $200 in travel expenses, wouldn’t you claim it? Sure you would. What’s puzzling is the number of people who fail to seek out more than $600 million in unclaimed property that has piled up since the 1950s.

State seeks owners of money – Billings Gazette
CHEYENNE – The state’s Unclaimed Property Division is making its annual effort to find the owners of more than $30 million in unclaimed money. Nancy Russell, director of the Unclaimed Property Division, a branch of the state treasurer’s office, said …

State can’t hold interest on unclaimed funds, high court rules – Cleveland Plain Dealer Blog
COLUMBUS — Ohio cannot keep interest earned on unclaimed funds owed to taxpayers, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today. Since the 1960s, the state has held millions of unclaimed checks and money from dormant banking accounts and placed the cash in a …

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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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It was just over a month ago that we pointed out that CA abandoned assets totaled $5.1 billion, but in just a few short weeks the state has added another $200,000 to bring the total to $5.3 billion, and counting, according Mercury News.

California is sitting on $5.3 billion in abandoned property, which it gets to keep until someone claims it. Businesses turn over about $500 million a year to the controller’s office.

And the battle over CA missing money between Cali’s controller, John Chiang, and the state itself, that we’ve discussed in earlier posts, rages on:

It’s not exactly in the state’s interest to work hard at finding the rightful owners, but that’s what Chiang has been doing. He has pushed for reforms to speed up the process, and he even wants the state to pay interest on the money.

Last year the Legislature expanded his authority to track down property owners. Deputy Controller Hallye Jordan said the office has sent out more than a million notices since then, and there have been many happy reunions.

In one case, a safety deposit box sent to the state in 2006 contained several World War II military medals, including the Medal of Honor. The controller was able to track down the war hero’s family and return the medals to them.

Read the rest of the Mercury News article which contains a personal found money story from the author, but the bottom line is that with the fight over CA unclaimed property, relying on the government to get your cash back to you isn’t going to cut it.

It’s time for anyone who might be owed lost assets to step up and get searching for your money today to be sure they find every last penny, and put it back in your own pockets where it belongs!

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This blog has mentioned the legal mess surrounding California’s unclaimed property program before, but it seems there is no end in sight. After a recent ruling that took the side of people who are owed a share of the CA unclaimed funds, the citizens, and took the position that the state had handled lost assets improperly, lawyers for state politicians rushed to try to stop the bleeding, as this will greatly affect the state’s ability to (wastefully) spend money. Sure, California politicians will always find a way to tax and spend, but they were counting on taking money owed to citizens and blowing it as well.

Here’s what happened a couple of weeks ago:

Attorneys for California’s controller are in court trying to head off a ruling that could cost the state millions of dollars. It all stems from the state’s handling of billions of dollars in unclaimed property, taken from taxpayers without notice.

Generally unclaimed money becomes “unclaimed” because it is difficult to contact the rightful owner for one reason or another, but more often than not it relates to a change of address in one way or another. It is generally recommended that the citizens learn how to search for missing money on their own because the states are simply incompetent when it comes to this matter.

California is in a league of its own!

“In our case, they took 200 shares of GE stock, and sold it. We’ve been at the same address for 34-years, but they couldn’t find us.

This is NOT an isolated incident, and it is exactly the sort of nonsense that makes it all the more clear that residents of any state, but California especially, need to know how to search for their own forgotten funds if they are truly intent on tracking them down.

California is making desperate moves to prevent people from reuniting with their cash. Don’t let them keep yours! This legal battle is far from over and the only way to ensure you don’t forfeit money owed to you as this drags out, is to locate it yourself and claim it ASAP.

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This is a new one – A limited time call in program for California missing money, hosted by a local television station and the State Controller (yes, California has a “controller”, as opposed to a “comptroller”, like other states have). Sadly I didn’t hear about it until today, so if you didn’t already get in on it, you missed it by about 24 hours. KCRA, via Yahoo!, reports:

To find out if you’ve got unclaimed property being held for you, Call 3 is teaming up with the Unclaimed Property Division of the State Controller’s Office for a Call 3 Call-In on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Phone lines will be open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. for questions. Call 916-447-2255.

Luckily there’s no time limit on UnclaimedMoney.net’s system. In fact you’ll get INSTANT ACCESS to a step by step unclaimed property search guide, backed up with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE.

Not only will you be able to search for unclaimed money in CA and across the nation whenever you want, as many times as you want, but you’ll also learn about methods for locating lost money that most unclaimed funds sites don’t tell you about.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for any future “Call 3 Call-Ins”, to assist you in your search for unclaimed funds in California.

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