(Part 1 of 2)

In May 2007, Illinois State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias announced that the state's "Cash Dash" abandoned asset program currently holds roughly $1.4 Billion in Illinois unclaimed money. The only thing standing between the cash and its true owners is the knowledge that it's out there and the ability to track it down.

Sadly beyond just Illinois, state treasury departments across the nation continue to take in more unclaimed money annually than they give back to the rightful owners. Because everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, the majority of people refuse to believe that there are really tens of billions of dollars that can be claimed across the country. Even for those few who have come to accept the truth about unclaimed cash, the best way to locate these monies eludes them in most cases.

The Prairie is State is one of just a few states that holds over a billion dollars on its own, and that means that if you're a resident of Illinois then you have even greater odds of locating a claim in your name, especially after you consider that the state has just under 13 million people and there are over 10 million names on the state's Illinois list.

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. Anyone who has had or knows someone who might have had one of these types of accounts at one time or another is encouraged to search frequently.

(to be continued)

–

Md. ready to give back $38 million in unclaimed money – WTOP Radio
ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland Comptroller's Office has recently unveiled $38 million of unclaimed funds belonging to 54,000 people in the state, and some of it could be yours. "We encourage folks to take a look at the names and see if they might be one of …

Is unclaimed cash waiting for you? – ABC Action News
TAMPA BAY, FL — We're all trying to ring up less at the register and cut back. Wife and mother Dee Carmichael is no different. “Because you never know if you could be the next one that has a spouse that may lose his job,” she said. Mark …

Unused eRate funding totals billions – eSchool Online
Educators are concerned over $5 billion in undistributed e-Rate funds.