California schools have yet to spend a sizable tech funding worth $250 million, according to a recent news report on unclaimed money in California. The money came from a settlement brought about by a lawsuit against Microsoft- much needed cash, as most schools in CA are making do with run-down computers and outdated programs. Most schools are avoiding being quick on the draw as the administrators want to use the money wisely. “We’re not going to go out and spend like a bunch of drunken sailors,” says Jim Varley, of the Kern County Office of Education, “We’re going to go about this very carefully.” Varlye’s office still has settlement claims for about $22,000 of its share of $121,000.
California schools are not the only ones that have money coming to them from the State- residents are also owed billions of dollars from financial assets they’ve lost track of and the California unclaimed money pile is rising because a majority of the populace is unaware.
In a report done recently on CA unclaimed property by The Lemoore Advance, California State Assemblyman Roger Niello says “If you or someone in your family has a bank account, safe deposit box, stocks, mutual funds, dividends, insurance policies, trust funds, or money or checks in almost any form which has been dormant — just sitting there with no activity for only three years — you are at risk of having the State claim that property. That’s right, it could all become property of the State of California and go into the General Fund.”
Ideally, the State is supposed to hold these assets for safekeeping until their owners are located and informed of their lost assets, but some State officials appeared to have been over-zealously collecting California unclaimed money and property and appropriating the funds to fill-up holes in their budgets. They’ve also even been accused of seizing property that hasn’t been abandoned yet.
I’ve known about the presence of unclaimed money with the individual state departments for quite some time now and somehow understood that the states are incapacitated by lack of manpower to effectively track down every single owner of unclaimed property in the unclaimed money list. What I can’t understand is the State government’s vigor in tracking down and collecting California unclaimed money from the various businesses and financial institutions holding them- always trying to shorten the dormancy period and yet doing lackadaisical efforts in giving the unclaimed money with its owners.
Santa Rosa resident Alan Witte discovered he had almost $800 in his name from a life insurance policy his parents took out in World War II. Suffering from Parkinson’s, he was in dire need of a wheelchair and thus badly needed his lost money back. The State told him there was a 6-month wait and Alan had to call ABC’s 7 On Your Side just to speed things up. Another case is that of San Francisco’s Carla Ruff. After attempting to retrieve important papers from a safe-deposit bank at the Noe Valley Bank of America, she discovered that not only were the paperwork shredded, other contents of the box- precious pearls and jewelry from her great grandmother had been turned-over to the state as unclaimed property and auctioned-off for way less than they were worth. “These things were things that she gave to me,” she says sadly. “I valued them because I loved her.” Ironically, she lived just a few blocks from the bank and still had an active checking account with them. “They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed,” said Ruff in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.
In a recent report by San Diego’s Union Tribune, a federal court panel’s ruling proved this. After a 6-year legal battle, District Judge William Schubb ruled that the California has not been doing enough in returning the lost funds to its owners. This was a big win for Sacramento attorney William Palmer who accused the state of actually suppressing the tracking-down of unclaimed property owners in order to increase revenue for its general fund. Even the new state controller, John Chiang said in a statement: “Restrictions in the law over the past two decades have created a ridiculously ineffective program for reuniting owners with their lost or forgotten property.”
Officials like Chiang and Assemblywoman Lois Wolk have been making efforts to change the way things in the California Unclaimed Property Division are being handled. Wolk just last week introduced legislation to provide Californians additional time to claim lost, forgotten or abandoned bank accounts- this accoding to a report by The Reporter, of Vacaville, CA. Under her bill, the state would extend the dormancy period from three years to five years, thereby allowing property owners more time to claim their property before it is transferred to the state. The bill won approval by the Assembly Judiciary Commitee and it looks like it’s well on its way to being passed. This is great news for current and former residents of the state who may be missing money. The Senate also passed a bill requiring establishments holding-on to CA unclaimed property to make more efforts in informing unclaimed money owners of their assets before they get handed-over to the State:
“SB 1319 (Machado) Unclaimed Property: Escheat. SB 1319 would require holders of unclaimed property, which includes insurance companies, to give additional notices to property owners. The bill would condition a property holder’s relief from liability on the holder’s compliance with the requirements of the Unclaimed Property Law. SB 1319 would also increase the penalties for a property holder’s willful or non-willful failure to comply with the requirements of the Unclaimed Property Law. The bill passed the Senate 27-12. The bill is awaiting assignment to an Assembly committee.”
The state of California’s unclaimed money pile is one of the biggest among the 50 states- around $5.1 billion worth and raking-in well over half a billion dollars per year. San Diego County alone has 900 names owed CA unclaimed funds totaling $145,000 on its unclaimed property list. The total amount of people owed unclaimed money in California is over 8 million people. With the gloomy condition of the U.S. economy right now, wouldn’t these unclaimed funds be of more use in the hands of its owners than in those of state of officials? Learn how to do an online search, get your missing money back and get what is rightfully yours to spend!
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