Washington Unclaimed Money Coffers Approach $600 Million!
As if the HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in Washington unclaimed money wasn’t enough, the state is about to take in another $100 Million, according to a recent article on the website of NBC affiliate KHQ.
This first excerpt from the article is a perfect example of why I can’t stress the search tip “search often”, enough:
Businesses are required to report unclaimed paychecks, deposits, refunds, escrow proceeds and similar items to the Department by Nov. 1 of each year, and the Department received a substantial amount this year, Unclaimed Property Manager Patti Wilson said.
Now, what if you’d searched at any point this year before Nov. 1. Even October 31. The State of Washington would have no record of your missing money. Worse, they’re so buried by accounts being turned over, that even today, November 21, your claim wouldn’t be reflected in the state’s records. And of course if your account hasn’t been dormant long enough, it may not be added to the database until next year. Again, “search often” is rule #1 in this game.
Now for the juicy stuff:
“We’re still processing it all, but we expect it to total close to $100 million involving 500,000 or more names,” she said.
And that’s on top of $500 million owed to more than 3 million people already in the searchable online database.
Essentially this means that unclaimed money in Washington will total $600 MILLION!!! And the best part is, with a population of less than 6.5 million, the odds are more likely that you’re owed money than not!!! (Especially when you consider that only 4.8 million are adults, and we’re looking at roughly 3.5 million being owed unclaimed property!!!)
If somehow those odds don’t motivate you, perhaps some unclaimed money success stories from regular folks will wake you up:
It pays to keep checking. Bruce Bleckert of Tacoma recently received $4,035 on two claims. He had checked for unclaimed property previously under his name, but these claims were under his wife’s name. Virginia Hanson of Woodinville received $2,226 from a Midwestern financial bank related to an escrow for a home, and Kymberlee Elliott of Vancouver got $188 from a company where she had once worked.
The article closes with a record return stat - “$39.4 million to more than 82,000 claimants in fiscal year 2007“.
There’s no reason you won’t be part of the stat for 2008, especially given the odds!
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