Why Locating Unclaimed Money Can Be Challenging?

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Government agencies acting as custodians for individual’s and business’s unclaimed money have no incentive, in general, to make it easy for the $ Billions to be found and thus claimed. *All assets issued or owing by Federal Agencies will not appear in any State unclaimed database. Each Federal Agency maintains its own unclaimed property records, however only approx. 15 Federal Agencies offer online databases for the public to search for unclaimed accounts. *Specific assets issued by many State or local governments themselves (State income or property tax refunds, payroll, child support checks, vendors checks or warrants) will NOT show up in State databases because its owner has a specific time frame by which to claim these unclaimed assets or refunds. Once the specific time period has lapsed, these unclaimed assets become the property of the government agency. This is similar to one’s IRS tax refund – one has 3 years to file and claim an IRS refund.

*The dollar amount or value of the unclaimed property is under specific value i.e.) $50 or $100 and the some States do not upload these records into their online database.

*The unclaimed or lost asset is still in its ‘dormancy period’ meaning the asset holder is not yet required to transfer over to the appropriate Government agency. This ‘dormancy period’ varies per property type and per each state’s unclaimed property statutes. Those assets in their ‘dormancy period’ are also called “pre-escheat”. An unclaimed asset that is in government custody is called “escheated”.

*Some States will sell escheated securities immediately and credit the owners account; whereas, other States will hold retain the securities, but may not give a dollar value to these (actual value can change daily) in their online database and with a some States the value will be given as $0 or might not be uploaded into in their database for a couple of years.

*Cashier checks, money orders and traveler checks are examples of unclaimed property turned over to the States without names. I have seen records listed as a serial # in the Owners Name field! These accounts will likely never be claimed!

*A few States only list the most recently added unclaimed accounts.

*One may need to check all states in which you have resided or worked in, as well as, the State in which a former employer/company is or was headquartered. *Many States Unclaimed Property Divisions are understaffed and cannot update regularly.

*Two States, namely Indiana and Idaho have passed laws by which assets left unclaimed after a specific number of years in their custody will not longer be claimable by the Owner, but will become the property of the State.

*Tangible items left in an abandoned Safe Deposit Box will, in most States, be auctioned off and the proceeds credited in the owner’s name. *Since unclaimed assets/money is effectively revenue for the States, if there is a question as to the last known address of the owner, State A maybe challenging or delaying a reciprocal agreement to transfer the asset/money to State B and therefore not list that asset/money in its public online database until the issue is resolved.

*There is no incentive for any Government agency to try to find or to contact individuals who have unclaimed money or property. These funds, for the most part, once received are placed in the Government general fund and spent on roads, schools etc.

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Finding Unclaimed Money – Hidden and Secrets

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State Treasury Departments are hoard billions in unclaimed cash owed to its people BUT Cash Unclaimed has reunited countless Americans with their share of the nations $35 BILLION in unclaimed property.

On June 1, 2007 a federal judge ordered the state of California to halt the seizure of unclaimed property including cash, stocks, safe deposit box contents and other property. CA may be the first of many states to be exposed for their inadequate notification to unclaimed money owners.

Due to the lack of action by the State Unclaimed Property Divisions, such as in California, Cashunclaimed.com identified a need for a massive outreach to people nationwide due to the extremely limited, archaic advertising efforts of state and federal agencies controlling unclaimed cash. The states acquire BILLIONS in unclaimed money annually and do very little to reach the rightful owners, and instead of returning the money to the account owners it is spent through the states general funds.

The state of CA, like other states, has great interest in the unclaimed property program since it has generated over $5 Billion in revenue for the state of the years.

U.S. District Judge William Shubb in Sacramento expressed no sympathy for the CA state’s loss of revenue as he shut down the program tasking the controller with creating an improved notification system that meets the court’s approval.

Although many states have failed at their job of notifying unclaimed account owners, there is a website whose advertising and outreach to Americans has been successful and has reunited unclaimed property owners with their money.

Bill McIntosh, Founder or cashunclaimed.com stated, “Our mission is to reunite Americans with their unclaimed money.” Cash Unclaimed and other sites like it spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in an effort to reach Americans, educate the public on the topic of unclaimed money and make them aware of the high likelihood they are owed unclaimed money.

Although the states each offer a website, state specific website searches will only search for money turned over to that state and will not search the other 49 states or any federal databases.

This leaves too many opportunities for accounts to go overlooked when a person is searching for them. Therefore, private sites have created an unparalleled database of millions of people owed money in all 50 states.

With the total of unclaimed cash growing BILLIONS annually, sites like CashUnclaimed are working hard to assist Americans in claiming the money that is rightfully theirs. Private websites advertising and outreach efforts have reunited countless people with their unclaimed money and property.

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Locating Official Unclaimed Money Bureaus

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Ironically in this time of economic turmoil, piles of Americans’ missing money are still sitting unclaimed in the various US State Treasuries. The current national total languishing in the various State Treasuries amounts to roughly $33 billion according to the Bureau of Unclaimed Money.

Reason for this is simple- the general public simply doesn’t know about the presence of unclaimed government money. Unclaimed money can come from uncollected final paychecks, dividends on old stocks and bonds, forgotten savings accounts or bank accounts or contents of safe deposit boxes belonging to the deceased. Lost assets can also come from stimulus checks that have been unclaimed or errors in the mailing address or personal information. Unclaimed funds also result from people moving to a new place and neglecting to notify banks, insurance companies and businesses about their change of address. This can result in lost mail, ergo lost money.

The National Unclaimed Property Law requires the IRS, banks, businesses and financial establishments to hand over lost assets to the Treasury as government unclaimed money after a specified dormancy period of 2-5 years depending on the asset. The Bureau of Unclaimed Money in the different States have the responsibility of putting the funds in safekeeping and most States do so in perpetuity- until an heir or proper beneficiary comes to file a claim. They are also tasked to locate and inform the rightful owners about their lost money. Lack of manpower or a known address prevents the government from reuniting everyone with their unclaimed funds however and this is why the various unclaimed money piles across the U.S. get bigger every year.

Another reason not enough people are finding their missing money is they lack the knowledge on how to do a proper unclaimed money search. A lot of potential recipients of state unclaimed funds fall trap to scammers that promise to find unclaimed property money for them ‘for a fee’. Others get lost in the sheer number of unclaimed money sites scattered throughout the internet, more often than not encountering dead ends.

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