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Is Your Property Sitting on a Shelf of Unclaimed Property?
Published Date : May 9, 2016
The State of California holds more than $8 billion in unclaimed funds on its books. States all over the country are running massive surpluses of orphaned accounts. These funds are the result of bank and investment accounts being left behind or dividend and interest, even tax refund checks or insurance proceeds, never cashed. As the magnitude of this coffer sits undetected by original owners or family members, this balance is used as a revenue source for the State’s General Fund, according to a report issued by a legislative analyst in Sacramento. With growing criticism over this practice, the state wants to match these orphaned assets with their owners.
The period of time that the account is “idle” may seem like a short period of time for anyone with assets they’ve managed themselves in a “buy and hold” fashion or old retirement accounts that were forgotten about after leaving a job. The Unclaimed Property law requires banks, insurance companies corporations and certain other entities to report and submit their customer’s property to the State Controller’s Office when there has been no activity for a period of time. According to the California State Controller, the period of time is generally three years. This lost or forgotten property is safeguarded as long as it takes to reunite it with the rightful owners; there is no deadline for claiming it once it is transferred over to the State Controller’s Office.
A “lost and found” program of sorts, according to State Controller Betty Yee approximately 32.5 million individuals and organizations have funds that they may not be aware of. And in some cases, the amount can be significant. In the state of Virginia, the Commonwealth “has paid claims over $2 million”, according to Vicki Bridgeman, the director of unclaimed property for the Virginia Department of Treasury.
California now has a website to make the identification of assets easy (www.claimit.ca.gov). Refund claims of up to $5,000 can be completed in a couple of minutes. Refund claims in sizes exceeding this amount require further paperwork. Additionally, heirs have a few more steps to claim property left behind by a deceased relative.
Intrigued by this, I entered my name as well as my husband’s name and we got a hit! It was a small sum of money and I received a check in the mail from the State Department of the Treasury, Unclaimed Property Fund within a few weeks. At Sand Hill, we are also working with clients whose deceased parents have a record of assets left behind after their passing. Depending on the size of the property, this can be meaningful when determining estate value of the decedent. It also provides peace of mind that there aren’t any unidentified remaining assets. This can be a valuable stone unturned.
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