Quite a few Indiana residents looking for great deals found them at a recent Indiana unclaimed property auction organized last summer by the State Attorney General. The Courier-Journal reports that Steve Carter had lots of goodies from abandoned safe deposit boxes which were turned-over to the state. Old coins, jewelry, trading cards, watches, etc. were up for grabs on an online state unclaimed property auction which has earned over $100,000 Indiana unclaimed funds since its inception in 2006.

The National Unclaimed Property Law dictates financial entities such as banks, insurance companies the IRS and businesses to turn-over lost or abandoned financial assets to the State as Indiana unclaimed property after 5 years of inactivity. The state auctions-off tangible items to make way for new ones each year and converts the proceeds as Indiana unclaimed money which can still be claimed by its rightful owners. Unlike most states however, Indiana doesn’t hold IN unclaimed funds for residents forever. After 25 years, the money becomes State property and will be spent as part of its budget.

12,000 Southern Indiana residents who have almost $2 million Indiana unclaimed money and property in their name will get their names posted on local papers as part of AG Carter’s outreach program for Indiana unclaimed property owners. These numbers only include unclaimed accounts that have been turned over in the recent year and an even greater amount of Indiana unclaimed money accounts are stored in the State’s databases. “It’s a dynamic database,” the Attorney General said. “There’s always money coming in and money going out.”

USA Today reports that with the bad economy the US is suffering from, some states with huge budget deficits are shortening the dormancy period for which unclaimed assets are collected in order to use residents’ missing money. It’s urgent therefore for everyone to do an unclaimed money search in every state they’ve lived in.

Looking for homes in Indiana?

Living in a Paradise-like setting, inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands have always had it better than residents of the mainland. The way of living relatively less costly and lifestyle a bit more relaxed. Hawaii isn’t exempt from the fuel crisis and national credit crunch the US is currently suffering however, and citizens there are just as desperate to get extra cash wherever they can.

Well, each year a number of Hawaiians do say aloha to extra cash and it comes from the most unlikely place- the State Treasury’s Unclaimed Property division. Around $6 million Hawaii unclaimed money are reunited with jubilant owners of HI unclaimed property every year. The unclaimed funds in Hawaii are piling-up because the amount of missingmoney given back is a little over half the lost money collected.

Scott Kami, of the State Budget and Finance Department says in an interview on NBC’s Honolulu TV station KNHL, “Right now, we’re holding $140 million that has been accumulated over a number of years,” adding “We normally get in $10 to $15 million a year and only give out about $6 million.” Obviously, the pile of Hawaii unclaimed funds is growing because not enough islanders are aware that doing a search for unclaimed money in Hawaii.

Hawaiian local Roger Thoren got a pleasant surprise when he did an unclaimed property search and found money in his father-in-laws name. “It was under $100, so it wasn’t a significant amount. But still surprising that it was there and no one knew about it,” says the stocky redhead.

Hawaiian unclaimed property can be anything from old stocks, abandoned bank accounts and insurance policies to uncashed checks, royalties and forgotten safe deposit boxes. These items are turned over to the State after being inactive for 3-5 years depending on the asset. The average amount an unclaimed property owner is owed is for a few hundred dollars and in some cases, over half a million!

Congressman Blake Oshiro, 33rd District, had been sending out notices to owners of HI unclaimed money since mid-October. His office sent out over 600 notices to owners of unclaimed funds worth $25 and more. In a recent press release,  “I’m just trying to get this property back into the hands of my constituents – it’s rightfully theirs in the the first place, but they simply may not have been aware of the money sitting there,” said Oshiro. “Since we’re in a financially unpredictable time right now in Hawaii, this is one way we can try to help out.”

Learn how to do an effective online search for unclaimed money in Hawaii and say aloha to your missing money !

It’s common knowledge that New York has one of the highest concentration of residents in the U.S. and that the lifestyle there is notoriously fast-paced with tons of people going through the state each month. These things might account for one of the lesser-known (but huge) assets of the state- New York unclaimed money. According to a report by Jersey’s The Courier Post, $5.6 million from NY State unclaimed property tax rebates have yet to be claimed by 17,000 residents- and that’s not even one third of the New York unclaimed money that has been piling-up since the 1940’s. There’s roughly $9 billion of it just sitting in the State Comptroller’s office in the Treasury Department waiting to be claimed by its rightful owners.

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, people lose track of their financial assets. The busier the lifestyle, the bigger the tendency to overlook or forget about things like utility checks, insurance and retirement benefits, stocks, savings accounts, etc. If financial institutions holding on to the lost money can’t find their owners after a period of 3-5 years (depending on the asset), they eventually wind-up in the Office Of Unclaimed Funds New York.

“New York State never takes any ownership of these monies. However, applicants must provide proof that they are entitled to the money.” Say New York Councilwoman Maria-Cristina Poons. New Yorkers and even out-of-state residents are encouraged to do an unclaimed money search- they might actually be owed some of the $8 billion unclaimed funds in New York state.

“More people have unclaimed funds than they think,” says Allison Iavarone, a senior manager at financial consulting giant KPMG. Madonna, Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Michael Bloomberg, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, even the Yankees and the Mets have come up on a list of people owed state of New York unclaimed money!

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wants all New York State residents to know they are owed money from the Office of Unclaimed Funds. There’s already $2.8 Million worth of NY unclaimed funds that belong to residents of northwest Queens neighborhoods alone. According to DiNapoli’s office. In a recent statement from Assemblyman Jose Peralta’s office, “56,000 people who live in eight zip codes which assembly district 39 is a part of, are entitled to $50 and up. We’ve been able to locate two fortunate individuals who have over $500 in unclaimed funds.”

With the economic slump the country is in right now, everybody should really check if they are owed money by the state. To say extra cash would be a blessing is a huge understatement during these times. The Comptroller’s office holds outreach programs in expos and state fairs to try to help reunite New Yorkers with their lost assets, but waiting around for those will take more time and in this case, time is money. You can actually check if you have unclaimed money right now from this computer. Doing an unclaimed property search on one’s own would be the best way to go as you will avoid middlemen or ‘finders’ who can take a big chunk out of your missing money.

California schools have yet to spend a sizable tech funding worth $250 million, according to a recent news report on unclaimed money in California. The money came from a settlement brought about by a lawsuit against Microsoft- much needed cash, as most schools in CA are making do with run-down computers and outdated programs. Most schools are avoiding being quick on the draw as the administrators want to use the money wisely.  “We’re not going to go out and spend like a bunch of drunken sailors,” says Jim Varley, of the Kern County Office of Education, “We’re going to go about this very carefully.” Varlye’s office still has settlement claims  for about $22,000 of its share of $121,000.

California schools are not the only ones that have money coming to them from the State- residents are also owed billions of dollars from financial assets they’ve lost track of and the California unclaimed money pile is rising because a majority of the populace is unaware.

In a report done recently on CA unclaimed property by The Lemoore Advance, California State Assemblyman Roger Niello says “If you or someone in your family has a bank account, safe deposit box, stocks, mutual funds, dividends, insurance policies, trust funds, or money or checks in almost any form which has been dormant — just sitting there with no activity for only three years — you are at risk of having the State claim that property. That’s right, it could all become property of the State of California and go into the General Fund.”

Ideally, the State is supposed to hold these assets for safekeeping until their owners are located and informed of their lost assets, but some State officials appeared to have been over-zealously collecting California unclaimed money and property and appropriating the funds to fill-up holes in their budgets. They’ve also even been accused of seizing property that hasn’t been abandoned yet.

I’ve known about the presence of unclaimed money with the individual state departments for quite some time now and somehow understood that the states are incapacitated by lack of manpower to effectively track down every single owner of unclaimed property in the unclaimed money list. What I can’t understand is the State government’s vigor in tracking down and collecting California unclaimed money from the various businesses and financial institutions holding them- always trying to shorten the dormancy period and yet doing lackadaisical efforts in giving the unclaimed money with its owners.

Santa Rosa resident Alan Witte discovered he had almost $800 in his name from a life insurance policy his parents took out in World War II. Suffering from Parkinson’s, he was in dire need of a wheelchair and thus badly needed his lost money back. The State told him there was a 6-month wait and Alan had to call ABC’s 7 On Your Side just to speed things up.  Another case is that of San Francisco’s Carla Ruff. After attempting to retrieve important papers from a safe-deposit bank at the Noe Valley Bank of America, she discovered that not only were the paperwork shredded, other contents of the box- precious pearls and jewelry from her great grandmother had been turned-over to the state as unclaimed property and auctioned-off for way less than they were worth. “These things were things that she gave to me,” she says sadly. “I valued them because I loved her.” Ironically, she lived just a few blocks from the bank and still had an active checking account with them. “They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed,” said Ruff in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.

In a recent report by San Diego’s Union Tribune, a federal court panel’s ruling proved this. After a 6-year legal battle, District Judge William Schubb ruled that the California has not been doing enough in returning the lost funds to its owners. This was a big win for Sacramento attorney William Palmer who accused the state of actually suppressing the tracking-down of unclaimed property owners in order to increase revenue for its general fund. Even the new state controller, John Chiang said in a statement: “Restrictions in the law over the past two decades have created a ridiculously ineffective program for reuniting owners with their lost or forgotten property.”

Officials like Chiang and Assemblywoman Lois Wolk have been making efforts to change the way things in the California Unclaimed Property Division are being handled. Wolk just last week introduced legislation to provide Californians additional time to claim lost, forgotten or abandoned bank accounts- this accoding to a report by The Reporter, of Vacaville, CA. Under her bill, the state would extend the dormancy period from three years to five years, thereby allowing property owners more time to claim their property before it is transferred to the state. The bill won approval by the Assembly Judiciary Commitee and it looks like it’s well on its way to being passed. This is great news for current and former residents of the state who may be missing money. The Senate also passed a bill requiring establishments holding-on to CA unclaimed property to make more efforts in informing unclaimed money owners of their assets before they get handed-over to the State:

“SB 1319 (Machado) Unclaimed Property: Escheat. SB 1319 would require holders of unclaimed property, which includes insurance companies, to give additional notices to property owners. The bill would condition a property holder’s relief from liability on the holder’s compliance with the requirements of the Unclaimed Property Law. SB 1319 would also increase the penalties for a property holder’s willful or non-willful failure to comply with the requirements of the Unclaimed Property Law. The bill passed the Senate 27-12. The bill is awaiting assignment to an Assembly committee.”

The state of California’s unclaimed money pile is one of the biggest among the 50 states- around $5.1 billion worth and raking-in well over half a billion dollars per year. San Diego County alone has 900 names owed CA unclaimed funds totaling $145,000 on its unclaimed property list. The total amount of people owed unclaimed money in California is over 8 million people. With the gloomy condition of the U.S. economy right now, wouldn’t these unclaimed funds be of more use in the hands of its owners than in those of state of officials? Learn how to do an online search, get your missing money back and get what is rightfully yours to spend!

BlogCatalog Blog Directory

The sagging US economy is pushing more and more Americans to seek more ways save-up or get much-needed cash in their pockets. Crude oil prices are rising as the dollar falls and families across the US are forced to make lifestyle changes- moving back home with the folks, buying from thrift shops rather than high-end fashionista boutiques, even selling stuff online- anything to lessen spending and get more money for the bills. A report this week on The Wichita Star says the number of local tips to the police have increased by a whopping 70% and it’s clear that the need for quick cash from reward money are pushing people to tell on criminals more. For Kansas residents, there is an unlikely place where they can get extra funds- the State Treasury. “Kansas is currently holding 200 million dollars in unclaimed property for its citizens and business,” says Jenalea Randall, Press Secretary for the Kansas Treasury.