APNewsBreak: AmEx pulls gift cards from NJ
It saw unused gift cards, travelers' checks and

WV Treasurer's Office educating Nitro residents about Unclaimed Property account
Nitro's mayor, Rusty Casto, said there are more than $300,000 dollars in unclaimed money due the people in Nitro.

New Laws Mean Unused Gift Card
The Better Solution Theoretically, having the state collect unused gift-card balances is arguably better for consumers than having card issuers keep the

Bipartisan Bill to Spend
According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airline passengers have left behind roughly $400,000 in

(Part 2 of 2)

So how is all this cash being lost without the owners knowing it? In the majority of situations it is as simple as forgetting about a checking or savings account that wasn't a primary account, or not leaving a forwarding address to all the right people when a person moves. Further, the State Treasurer's site lists the following as common kinds of lost properties in Connecticut: safe deposit box contents, stocks, life insurance policies, travelers' checks or money orders, deposits, uncashed checks, and bonds or mutual fund shares.

As these different types of accounts lay untouched past their dormancy periods (unique for each account type and each state), they are handed over to the state for safe keeping until the rightful owner steps forward to claim them. So if the dormancy period on a particular account doesn't run out for another year or two, a person searching today will find no record of their forgotten funds, despite the fact that it is out there in pre-escheat, which means that the dormancy period has not yet expired. Further, states do not have a uniform law mandating when the records are actually added to their databases so a person could in theory search and find nothing, while the record could be added the following day, week, month or year. The only way to be thorough about your search is to search regularly.

On top of limiting themselves to a single search, inexperienced searchers often search only the state they reside in, not aware that there is a possibility for unclaimed money owed to them in states they've never lived in or even been to, for a variety of reasons such as insurance company headquarters or employers' corporate headquarters.

The issues mentioned above, among others, can be avoided once people become educated on proper search strategies. Seeking the advice and guidance of experienced unclaimed asset finders often makes the difference in whether or not a person with limited knowledge in this area finds all cash belonging to them or not.

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How to Find Your Missing Money
Is there money out there that's yours, just waiting for you to claim it? It's possible.

Singer Jason Mraz has unclaimed money in W.Va.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginias treasurer wants Jason Mraz to come pick up his money. Treasurer John Perdue said Tuesday the pop singers name is on a list of people due unclaimed property in the state. Perdue didnt specify how much money but sai…

Gift Cards are a Significant Source of Income for State Offices when They are Unredeemed
In the past, the companies that issued the gift cards we able to keep the

(Part 1 of 2)

Despite giving back a record $26.2 million in Connecticut unclaimed money in the year 2006, there are still tens of millions of dollars in forgotten funds waiting to be discovered and claimed by the true owners – average people who simply abandoned or forgot about these monies for one reason or another.

Recent efforts by the Connecticut State Treasurer's "The Big List" program have given back 100 million dollars back to Connecticut residents in just the last 8 years, but much more money continued to come in than went out so the heaps of unclaimed money held by the government keep on growing. Due to the fact that new forgotten funds outpace the return rate, the odds of finding a claim for any given name are getting better all the time.

The majority of people wonder how unclaimed money could be real, because the fact that across the country there are billions of dollars waiting to be discovered by the rightful owners simply seems unbelievable. Why would these citizens abandon their cash? Are they crazy? No, they're just regular people, and it has been estimated that 7 out of every 10 Americans are due some type of claim!

(to be continued)

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Thousands of new names on
The

PA Treasurer McCord: As Statutory Unclaimed Property Reporting Deadline Nears, Treasury Records Highest March …
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Treasury last month collected nearly $25.4 million, more unclaimed property than it had in any March in the past seven years, State Treasurer Rob McCord noted today as he announced Treasury …

$1M cost for $400K donation
A bill to send unclaimed money at airports to the USO would come at a price.

Gift Cards are a Significant Source of Income for State Offices when They are Unredeemed
In the past, the companies that issued the gift cards we able to keep the