Do I Have Unclaimed Money and Property in California State Under my Name?
Did you know that The State of California is currently in possession of more than $6.1 billion in unclaimed property belonging to approximately 17.6 million individuals and organizations?
That's a staggering amount of money that could be going back into the hands of the people that could use it the most - especially now in our slumping economy. You may have money sitting that you don't know even know about! Two days ago I decided to run my families names in the California treasury website for unclaimed property and money and found over $200 owed to me, my husband and my son. $200 and all it took was a quick search on Google! That was about the quickest $200 I've ever made - and it was money that I didn't even know we had!
One of the claims was money owed to us by a closed credit account and the other two claims were for bank accounts that my parents had started for us over 20 years ago.
Lost funds in California - typical things that are unclaimed
The most common types of Unclaimed Property are:
- Bank accounts and contents of safe deposit boxes
- Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends
- Uncashed money orders/cashiers checks
- Deposit Certificates
- Matured or terminated insurance policies
- Estate proceedings
- Mineral interests and royalty payments, trust funds, and escrow accounts.
How to find unclaimed money and California funds or property
To see if you have any unclaimed funds all you have to do is go to the California State controllers office government website here at: http://www.sco.ca.gov/upd.html. This service by the way is absolutely FREE.
There is a search box there where you will be prompted to enter your name and city. For my search I left off the city and I also ran my previous married name and maiden name (one of my accounts actually showed up under my previous married name). Then you will either see a screen that says there are no matches (meaning there are no unclaimed funds or property for that name) or you will see a list of the names that match your search criteria.
If you find unclaimed property,funds or money that belong to you you can then claim it by filling out the form and then printing out the form it prompts you to print. That form then has to be signed by you and mailed to the State Controllers Office (it has to be mailed because they need your original signature on the claim form) They say it can take up to 180 days to process your claim so you may have to wait awhile to get your money but with time and patience you will!
More unclaimed money "secrets"
Get the money back into the hands of the people!
I hope this article (hub) helps you find some unclaimed money that perhaps you didn't know about. If you had some success finding money or property using this method I would love to hear back from you in the comments section below. My aim is to help get as much unclaimed money BACK into the citizens pockets as possible - especially now when money is MUCH needed by so many families. Good luck and I hope you find some money that belongs to you!
(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher on the Internet)
