With the rising costs of basic food items and gas up to $4 per gallon, job cuts, mass foreclosures and other financial woes are plaguing Americans across the country. There are still a few happy stories however and believe it or not, people have been finding money they didn't know they had. A resident of Jeffersonville, IN recently got the 'icing on the cake' which was her happy life in the form of Indiana unclaimed money- $116,000 worth. The money returned to Carol Lee Woods came from languishing stocks she had forgotten about after the wig company she invested in underwent a name-change. “I just assumed it had gone out of business,” the former commercial model said. Stories like this are not uncommon- everywhere in the U.S. people are discovering money from unclaimed financial properties they didn't know they had. Kinda like finding a couple of dollar bills in that leather jacket you haven't worn for a while.
State Treasury Departments across the United States have piles of unclaimed money and property. These piles of unclaimed funds are getting bigger every year and Indiana's is no exception. The main reason for the money piling-up is because the Indiana Unclaimed Property Division (as with the Unclaimed Divisions in other states) collects more lost loot than they return every year. An average of $40 million in unclaimed money and property in Indiana is given back to residents each year, but millions more are added to the over $320 million that remain each year. A Fox 28 report says $16 million in unclaimed funds were collected recently in north central Indiana alone! The Johnson County Treasurer has almost $400,000 in undelivered tax refund checks and is looking for 800-900 people to give them to, according to NBC's Eyewitness News 13 this week. 36 people in Wabash County are still owed rebate checks and these will be turned over to the State as Indiana unclaimed money after a few years as well. Reason for the lost rebate checks are inaccurate mailing address and Wabash County Auditor says the average is for $104.
By law, businesses or financial entities that have possession of lost or abandoned financial assets like unclaimed tax refunds, long-dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, uncollected salaries, unredeemed insurance and retirement benefits, and stock and mineral deposits are required to turn them over to the state after a certain period (usually 3-5 years). It is the state's responsibility to 'reunite' these unclaimed financial assets with their owners who lose track of their finances through forgetfulness, change of address, or errors in mailing addresses. In a report by the Indianapolis Star, the latter two might have caused 900 property rebate checks for Hamilton County residents to be returned to the auditor's office- undelivered. "We get tax bills back, and we have to do our diligence to get these out and try to find those people," State Auditor Robin Mills says. "A lot of people have moved, otherwise they would have received their property, so we really don't know where to start even though we do have an address, maybe of where they used to be. With the price of gas at four dollars a gallon, if people can claim another 40 dollars or 400 dollars, it can make a difference and help families," Indiana State Attorney General Steve Carter said in an unclaimed property report on Lafayette's WLFI 18.
