(Part 1 of 2)

In May of 2007, Illinois State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stated that the state's "Cash Dash" abandoned asset program is holding nearly $1.4 Billion in Illinois unclaimed money. The only thing standing between the cash and its true owners is the knowledge that it is out there waiting to be claimed and the knowledge to locate it.

Sadly in addition to Illinois, state treasury departments across the nation continue to take in more unclaimed funds each year than they give back to the people. Due to the fact that everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, most people do not believe that there are truly tens of billions of dollars that can be claimed nationwide. Even for those few who have come to accept the truth about unclaimed assets, the best way to locate these monies eludes them more often than not.

The Prairie is State is one of those rare states that is holding over a billion dollars on its own, and that means that if you are a resident of Illinois then you have even greater odds of tracking down a claim in your name, especially when you factor in that the state has less than 13 million people and there are over 10 million names on the state's Illinois database.

Even though there are many more, Illinois names the following as the most common sources of forgotten funds: credit balances, customer deposits or overpayments, safe deposit box contents, money orders, refunds, paid-up life insurance policies, travelers checks, unpaid wages or commissions, abandoned savings and checking accounts, bonds, stock, un-cashed dividends, mutual funds. People who have had or know someone who might have had one of these accounts at some point in the past is encouraged to search often.

The Illinois State Treasury has returned over $432 million since it took control of the unclaimed funds program in 1999, 84 million dollars of which was returned in 2006 alone, but with $1.4 Billion waiting to be claimed and more coming in all the time, the mountain of cash will continue to grow.

(to be continued)

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Don#39;t Toss That Letter; You May Have Unclaimed Property! – PR Newswire (press release)
table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/3-0fd=Rurl=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl%3FACCT%3D104%26STORY%3D/www/story/02-05-2009/0004967252%26EDATE%3Dcid=1301293169ei=WeyMSamcHZXFmQegk9StCgusg=AFQjCNFp0BP2LvlYM8jgDFDLufcQUn1MewDon#39;t Toss That Letter; You May Have bUnclaimed/b Property!/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fPR Newswire (press release),nbsp;NYnbsp;-/font nobrFeb 5, 2009/nobr/fontbrfont size=-15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Each year, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department receives millions of dollars in new bunclaimed/b property, and you may receive a b…/b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

$6000 find attests to value of checking Cash Dash – The State Journal-Register
table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-0fd=Rurl=http://www.sj-r.com/state/x1343965240/-6-000-find-attests-to-value-of-checking-Cash-Dashcid=1300416027ei=WeyMSamcHZXFmQegk9StCgusg=AFQjCNHVzF_uEwqcnj90Q2rhy9wETgytGQ$6000 find attests to value of checking Cash Dash/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fThe State Journal-Register,nbsp;ILnbsp;-/font nobrFeb 3, 2009/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1These funds come from accounts collected by the state’s bunclaimed/b property division since August 2008 that need to be reunited with their rightful owners or b…/b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-1fd=Rurl=http://www.lexch.com/articles/2009/02/02/news/local/doc49870a5dcdbc5213998595.txtcid=1300416027ei=WeyMSamcHZXFmQegk9StCgusg=AFQjCNEwKbWe2JBTgqyedOUzooVmT199ZgHunt for owners going fine — really (98)/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrLexington Clipper Herald/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-2fd=Rurl=http://www.sj-r.com/time_out/x309573942/-75-million-returned-in-08cid=1300416027ei=WeyMSamcHZXFmQegk9StCgusg=AFQjCNEEMRkO_XcjnzrRC4cXvEvjhlgUnw$75 million returned in ’08/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrThe State Journal-Register/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?ie=UTF-8oe=utf-8rls=org.mozilla:en-US:officialclient=firefox-atab=wnncl=1300416027hl=ennobrall 5 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

States look at bottle deposit bills to help make money, critics call it another tax (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
BOSTON – Initially passed decades ago by states looking to promote recycling and help fight pollution, bottle bills are now becoming popular proposals for states looking for any extra infusion of cash.

State holding checks for big names (Las Vegas Sun)
Kate Marshall oversees Nevada’s Unclaimed Property Division — basically, money that’s owed to individuals or corporations by people or companies who can’t find them.

Voluntary sector fears backtracking by banks – Times Online
table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-0fd=Rurl=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/public_sector/article5671436.ececid=0ei=WeyMSamcHZXFmQegk9StCgusg=AFQjCNG66g8ad3Q18Rv5RZzb96fdIEMp5wVoluntary sector fears backtracking by banks/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fTimes Online,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobrFeb 5, 2009/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1The banks have suggested that there is about £400 million of bunclaimed/b assets but estimates by Grant Thornton, the accountant, suggest that there might be b…/b/font/div/font/td/tr/table