Settlement benefits Pennsylvania consumers
A recent lawsuit was settled that benefits the Pennsylvania Treasury. However, this unclaimed property windfall will soon benefit unknowing Pennsylvania consumers through the recovery of unclaimed rebates. Read the full story here: http://goo.gl/yosHj
Deadline looms for Santa Cruz County
Residents of Santa Cruz County in California have until December 3rd, 2012 to review the unclaimed property listings distributed by the county. After that date, the unclaimed property tax refunds and uncashed checks will revert to the county’s general fund. Check the PDF listing at our Ge.tt cloud service: http://ge.tt/6AzZiqR/v/0
Or, review the same listing in Excel 2010 format here.
This includes the cities listed below (among others):
- Santa Cruz, CA
- Capitola, CA
- Scotts Valley, CA
- Watsonville, CA
- Rio del Mar, CA
New microvolunteer projects online!
Discovered Money is pleased to announce new microvolunteer projects now available online! Here is your chance to help us in your spare time. We have posted more than five different Google spreadsheets full of unclaimed property records. We are seeking to locate these owners listed in the documents and notify them about the prospects of unclaimed property. To help, simply follow these three easy steps:
1. Visit any of our Google spreadsheets listed at this page.
2. Conduct simple people searches on your favorite search engine or social media site.
3. Report back to us what you found. Paste the search results and the links in the Google spreadsheet. That’s it!
No pesky registration forms. No login required. You don’t even need to give credit to yourself for the information you found and provided to us.
Thank you very much for your interest in Discovered Money – the nation’s premier and free unclaimed property website!
San Diego County issues list for September unclaimed funds deadline
According to the San Diego Business Journal:
San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister says he has nearly 800 unclaimed cash accounts amounting to almost $200,000 that he’s trying to return to the rightful owners.
The funds in the accounts came from individuals who have done business with any county department in the past three years and are overpayments. The majority of the money, some $117,000, is property tax refunds, but another $94,000 is from refunds by various county departments consumers have dealt with. The largest refund is for about $8,700 while the lowest is $10.
“We hope that the owners come forward before September 14, 2012 and claim their refunds,” McAllister said.
After that deadline, state law allows unclaimed countywide funds to be turned over to the county’s general fund; property tax refunds require four years before the county can officially take them.
The property tax refund listing is available here in PDF format and here in XLSX format (Excel 2010).
The county-wide refund listing is available here in PDF format.
To claim anything found on the list of the unclaimed accounts, go to www.sdtreastax.com, or call 877-829-4732.
Wisconsin releases unclaimed Prudential life insurance listing
(Via submitted press release.)
MADISON, Wis., July 18 — The Wisconsin State Treasurer issued the following news release:
Starting today, Wisconsin residents who believe they are the beneficiaries of aPrudential Insurance Company policy will be able to search the unclaimed property database and see if they are owed any money. Late last week, Prudential Insurance turned over more than $1.5 million in one of several payments expected through the end of 2012.
Prudential revamped its unclaimed property reporting practices to better cross-reference its policy database with public death records.
”Prudential is doing the right thing by ensuring those who are owed death benefits receive that cash,” State Treasurer Kurt Schuller said.
Prudential is currently cross-referencing millions of names in databases to make sure death benefits are sent to Unclaimed Property Units in California,Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi,Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota,Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C. as well asWisconsin.
The Wisconsin State Treasury has received 1,078 names from Prudential and we have placed a PDF document and Excel spreadsheet with those names on our homepage, www.wismissingmoney.com. These documents will be updated at the same time our database is updated as Prudential continues to send more information to our office. Check www.wismissingmoney.com frequently.
Vermont bankruptcy court releases fresh unclaimed funds list
On June 28th, 2012, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (District of Vermont) issued a fresh unclaimed funds listing on this website.
Ohio unclaimed property claimants will receive court settlements
An eight year old lawsuit in Ohio regarding whether unclaimed property owners should be entitled to interest income while the State of Ohio held their funds has been settled. A total of $15 Million has been agreed to be paid back to claimants since August 3, 2000 according to a recent press release.
June 25th is last day to claim Sacramento, California payments
June 25th, 2012 is the last day for Sacramento residents and businesses to claim the lost money due to them. Corporations who have conducted business with the city in the past 20 years could also be included on the list.
The City of Sacramento, California released this list of uncashed checks and utility account credit balances in mid-April.
The PDF listing is available for download at Ge.tt.
More information, including a claim form, is available on the city’s website.
Daily deals sites face slippery slope
Thanks to Robert S. Peters of Duff & Phelps for the great article entitled “Daily Deals: The Very Real Risks from Unclaimed Property Laws”. We completely agree that short expiration periods will lead to many consumer backlashes and hefty lawsuits in the future for Groupon and its competitors.
Here is an excerpt:
…
Also part of the picture are the unclaimed property and consumer provisions at the state level that govern the types of unclaimed property that are required to be remitted to the state to capture unclaimed coupon and gift card value. With at least 42 states facing budget shortfalls, many are looking for new and expanded definitions of unclaimed property to close these gaps.
New Jersey is among the states that have attempted to expand the definition of unused gift cards/certificates reportable to the state by shortening the unclaimed status timeline to two years from five years. The state also requires that merchants gather contact information from the buyer so that the state can track the cards. These rules were projected to raise an additional $79 million for New Jersey’s coffers in 2011.
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Read the entire article here. Thanks Eric Savitz (@Savitz) for publishing this guest post on your Forbes blog.
South Dakota reduces dormancy period for banks
The escheatment of banking property in South Dakota will increase as HB 1270 was signed into law by Governor Dennis Daugaard. The dormancy period for banking properties was reduced from five to three years, making South Dakota the 22nd state since 2007 to pass legislation reducing dormancy periods.
As a result of legislation such as this, more and more banks are having to report and remit dormant accounts sooner.
The law will go into effect on July 1, 2012, but will not affect the current reporting period ending June 30th. The Holder Reports due by November 1, 2012 will still use the current dormancy periods. All reports due in 2013 will follow the updated dormancy periods.
