Sweet Money for Beehive State Residents- Utah Unclaimed Money
The Utah State Treasurer is looking for 25,000 individuals and businesses who have lost track of their financial assets. Most of the names that are owed millions of dollars in Utah unclaimed property are probably oblivious of the fact that they have state unclaimed money in their name- the money wouldn’t have piled-up otherwise. Right now, the unclaimed funds in the Beehive State have piled-up to an excess of $100 million!
Every year people lose track of their assets due to a change in address and neglecting to leave behind a forwarding address.. When financial establishments can’t locate the rightful owners of abandoned assets like bank accounts, uncashed checks, and insurance policies, they are required by escheat laws to turn these over to the state after 5 years. The last example (insurance) makes up a quarter of Utah unclaimed money accounts, says Utah unclaimed property administrator Kim Oliver. “Maybe your mom or dad bought you a life insurance policy when you were a little kid. You’ve moved since then and Prudential couldn’t find you when the ownership policies were cashed out. So if you think you were with this firm, you could be getting something.” Oliver is talking about Prudential Properties who changed to stockholder format from policyholder format after which thousands of couldn’t be contacted for their payouts. This in a report from local newspaper The Deseret News.
With the cost of food, fuel and basic commodities going-up, Americans are scrambling to find ways to get extra money just to get by. Doing an unclaimed money search can be one of the quickest (and legal) ways to extra funds in your pocket. Who knows? You may missing money right now and not even know it.
New York Unclaimed Money- Your Cash Being Stolen!
With the weak dollar and the current state of the US economy, quick extra cash would most certainly be a blessing for most Americans right now. A recent story in “The Independent” reported that a record 28 million Americans are relying on food stamps to survive. Is this The Great Depression ‘08? Not quite, but across the U.S, rising fuel, the housing slump and national credit crunch is forcing Americans to make lifestyle changes. Fact is, more and more people all over the country are working extra hours and looking for ways earn a few more bucks to make ends meet. Ironically, a lot of them might not have to look any further than their State Treasury Department. Not many people are aware that they are owed money by the government but it’s a fact. Residents of the 50 states are owed over $30 billion spread-out among the individual Treasury Departments and New York State’s unclaimed money account is one of the biggest.
State unclaimed money can come from various sources for various reasons. 17,000 Albany residents for example, have yet to cash their property tax rebate checks amounting to $5.6 million. Any unclaimed checks will get turned-over to the State Comptroller on March 2009 as NY State unclaimed money. WXXi recently reported that Monroe County has 40 uncashed checks waiting for it in the New York State Comptroller’s office. “For confidentiality reasons I can’t tell you the exact amount, but the funds on all the claims range from less than $50 to several thousand dollars.” Emily DeSantis of the Comptroller’s office said.
According to NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in a Queens Gazette report in Sept. ‘08, a total of $9 billion in NY unclaimed money and property are just waiting to be claimed by their rightful owners- most of whom are unaware they’re have unclaimed funds in their name. This might include 440,000 resident retirees and disabled veterans who haven’t filed for their tax stimulus in the various counties of the Empire State. “Most people only need to file a tax return as they normally do,” Dianne Besunder, spokeswoman for the IRS says in Schenectady’s Daily Gazette. “We will calculate eligibility and payment amount. However, many retirees and veterans do not normally file a tax return because their benefits are not taxable. This year, they must file in order to receive an economic stimulus payment.”
Those that have heard about unclaimed property money usually don’t bother to check thinking it’s too much of a fuss. These are the reasons why the money is piling-up. On Monday this week, ABC’s WSYR helped dozens of Central New Yorkers find over $11,000 of their missing money. Four callers on “The Morning News” found-out they had at least $1,000 NY unclaimed money in their name.
The New York State’s Unclaimed Property Law require that lost assets in the hands of businesses and financial institutions be turned-over to the state after a ‘dormancy period’ of 2-5 years depending on the type of asset. The Empire State has one of the biggest fines (up to $50,000) for failure to ‘escheat’ or turn over abandoned assets. These can be uncashed checks and money orders, insurance policies, stock dividends, long-dormant bank accounts, safe deposit box contents and other financial assets. The state then holds on to them until the rightful owners show-up. There’s no time limit as to when owners of unclaimed money can claim their cash, but doing an unclaimed property search in New York would be the more sensible thing to do especially in light of a recent news report about a man getting arrested for stealing New York unclaimed money.
The North County Gazette reported July last year that an owner of a Brooklyn processing company was charged with defrauding over $32,000 New York unclaimed money from the state. He did this by posing as the rightful owners of the funds using personal confidential information like Social Security numbers which he had access to in his line of work. He was a licensed process server and CEO of the company. There was another case just last month in Delaware about an employee with the State government doing the same thing. Reports like this just stresses the urgency for people to do an unclaimed money search in New York and other states to check if they are owed cash that should be in their pockets and not going to those of other people’s.
Texas Unclaimed Money
Texas state comptroller has almost two billion dollars in unclaimed assets to give away to the state’s residents. Although the Lone Star State has fared a little better than other states during these lean times of high oil prices and sub-prime mortgage crash, I’m sure residents can find some use for extra funds. The truth is, most of the two hundred thousand residents owed Texas unclaimed funds aren’t even aware they’re missing money. In an October 17 KTRE report, around 130, 000 names will be released on an annual list of people owed Texas unclaimed money. “Many family budgets are tight and most folks could use some extra cash right now,” says Treasurer Susan Combs. “Everyone on the Unclaimed Property List has at least $250 they can claim.”
People tend to forget about collecting salary or insurance checks when they find new jobs and relocate in a hurry. They also forget to leave behind forwarding addresses after they relocate which is one of the primary causes for lost checks. When business and financial establishments can’t find the rightful owners of these abandoned financial assets for five years (in Texas), they are handed over to the state as dictated by Texas Unclaimed Funds Law which follows the country’s escheat laws. The unclaimed property stay with the Texas state Comptroller’s office until their owners come to claim them.
Unclaimed money in Texas covers anything from forgotten bank accounts, unclaimed tax refunds, savings accounts, stock and cash dividends, uncollected insurance benefits and money orders to gift certificates, un-cashed checks and contents of safety deposit boxes that are considered abandoned by their owners. The latter is the only example of tangible assets under the Texas Unclaimed Funds Law and and they are sold off on eBay after 2 years of being turned over to the State Comptroller. So if you are looking for antiques or family heirlooms that your Texan relatives may have lost track of over the years, your best bet is to look soon or risk allowing them to show up on eBay. The earnings from the online auctions are handed back to the Texas unclaimed property fund where they still can be reclaimed by their rightful owners at any time.
In times like these, this is good news indeed for people living in the Lone Star State. But don’t think that the TX Comptroller shows up at your front door and to hand your lost assets to you. Unless you don’t have an immediate need for extra cash in your pocket, you should start searching for unclaimed money in Texas or other states now!
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