State's Unclaimed property

[happy2bretired]

Our state treasurer is trying to do some cleaning up of "unclaimed property". I found my mother's name listed under her first husband's last name (my maiden name - when she was married to my father) so I submitted a claim. First I got an email asking for information and now I have a letter asking for all kinds of things. I need death certificate, copy of my driver's license and proof of my SSN. I need a copy of her will and a copy of my marriage license.

My mother remarried after my father died. My father died in 1952! My mother died in 1989 and her 2nd husband died in the late '90s. Now where in the world do I find a copy of her will? I doubt that she even had one.

No wonder the state has so much unclaimed property. I think I will get the property eventually, but, geez so many hoops. Has anyone ever done this before?

It appears to be about $1300 of Life Insurance from what I can gather.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

yup. i found about four hundred for me about a year ago. it was from my past employer. i have no idea how it got in state hands.

[accountingsucks]

Probably what happened is that the company you worked for issued you a cheque at one point....maybe for an expense claim. The cheque was not cashed and became stale dated. At that point the company had to forward it to the state as unclaimed property. Most states have a provision, if that it isn't claimed in a certain amount of time ownership transfers to the company.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

could be. dunno. i had direct deposit which i was not diligent about checking. i just assumed they'd make timely deposits directly into my account like they assumed i'd be to work on time. guess we were both wrong.

[Achiever51]

I knew a fellow at my former MegaCorp who had responsibility for the corporate escheat department. He described it as an absolute nightmare...any uncollected/uncashed refund, gift certificate, rebate, expense check, dividend check or any other kind of payment that could be identified but remained uncashed had to be forwarded to the State after a certain period of time. This is what banks also have to do with unclaimed accounts. If you can prove it's yours, the State will return it to you, but eventually (I think the time period varies from State to State) if still unclaimed it reverts to the State's general fund.

[Achiever51]

I just checked the website MissingMoney.com just for the heck of it...and much to my surprise, I discovered that I too have an unclaimed sum left over from a mutual fund investment long ago sold. The amount was not revealed and I'm assuming it's pretty small -- probably a last dividend or a fractional share -- but still, it's kinda cool to find it! I've already printed out the paperwork for my state treasury to claim my "riches". Nice!