State of California Spent $5 Billion of Citizens Unclaimed Money

The State of California has amassed $4.8 Billion in unclaimed money owed to citizens. With no statute of limitations on claiming money and minimal state outreach to account owners, approximately $900 million in unclaimed money funds is added annually. The State currently spends the unclaimed money by depositing it into the States General Fund. Citizens need to be informed of money owed to them and take what is rightfully theirs.

In April 2006 State Controller, Steve Wesley, stated, “The Governor and Legislature are using unclaimed property to cope with the State budget mess they created through gridlock and mismanagement. This must stop”. Currently the state pays out about $250 million annually in found property claims and the rest is put in the general fund and spent as if it were the States money.

In an attempt to better the States unclaimed money system, Wesley sponsored a Bill, SB 1752, which would have removed severe restrictions on the State’s ability to find account owners. The Bill would have also separated the unclaimed money into its own account, instead of the General Fund, and earned interest for the account owners. Wesley added, “I sponsored this bill to change the system and take California’s unclaimed property away from the politicians and return it to the people. Forgotten checking accounts should not be used to plug holes in the State budget.”

Since the Bill’s creation in April 2006 the Bill, SB 1752, the bill is being held in committee. If the legislature adjourns at the end of the month without taking action on the bill, it will be dead.

Through Wesley’s efforts the State has increased the unclaimed money returns for the last 3 years. In 2004 $177.4 million was returned, 2005 $238.5 million, and in 2006 $292 million. Even though there has been an increase in annual returns of found property the unclaimed money balance is still growing $500 million annually after paying out claims! At this rate the total lost funds will be $10 billion in the next 10 years. Minimal efforts by the State are not enough to reach the nearly 8 million unclaimed money account owners.

Sites are being established that advertise to account owners not only in California, but nation wide. This private advertisement has added to the increase in found property claims.

Nationally there is over $25 Billion in lost funds.

Most people have put a deposit down for a gas, electric account at some time. People move and forget about the deposit but the money is theirs and electric company doesn’t know where to send it. The money is placed in state’s treasury department fund for unclaimed property. This is one of hundreds of places missing money may come from. Found property may consist of savings or checking accounts, stocks, mutual funds, dividends, IRS refunds, wages, child support payments, the list goes on.

One inefficiency in having a state operated missing money database is a person who searches the database will only find money reported in that state. Also, the states are limited on what they can do to reach account owners and do not have a budget to advertise to the public and notify them of the ever-growing lost money funds.

Even if a person has only lived in one state they may have money in other states databases. An insurance company in New York that owed someone money on a policy may place the unclaimed money in the state of New York’s database, regardless of the state of residency of the beneficiary. Also, the unclaimed property may be listed under possible name variations (William Smith may be listed as W. Smith or Bill Smith). The government has not created a single database to search for unclaimed money.

To fill the inefficiencies of the States all in one databases have been created. Searching in a quality, database will search all state and federal databases, all possible name variations and provide the instructions and forms for submitting a claim once money has been found. These sites also spend a great deal advertising to the public informing them of the high likelihood they, or someone in their immediate family, is owed money.

The reason the national amount of unclaimed money is growing billions year after year is people are not searching to see if any is owed to them. It may be money that was forgotten about or an inheritance the person never knew existed. People will never know until they look. A simple search may mean a check in the mailbox.

Cashunclaimed.com is the largest unclaimed money database, including all state and federal databases. CashUnclaimed.com was founded to assist owners in easily locating and claiming their lost funds. The site offers more information on unclaimed money and free unclaimed money search at www.cashunclaimed.com.

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