(Part 1 of 2)

In May 2007, Illinois State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias announced that the state's "Cash Dash" program currently holds nearly $1.4 Billion in Illinois unclaimed money. The only thing getting between the cash and its rightful owners is the knowledge that it is out there waiting to be claimed and the knowledge to track it down.

Sadly in addition to Illinois, state treasury departments across the United States continue to take in more unclaimed funds every year than they hand back to the people. Because everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, the majority of people do not believe that there are truly tens of billions of dollars that can be claimed across the country. Even for the handful who have realized the truth about unclaimed assets, the best way to locate these monies eludes them most of the time.

The Prairie is State is one of those rare states that holds over 1 billion dollars on its own, which means if you are a resident of Illinois then you have even greater odds of locating a claim in your name, especially when you factor in that the state has just under 13 million people and there are more than 10 million names on the state's Illinois list.

Although there are many more, Illinois names the following as the most common sources of missing money: 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 may have had one of these accounts at some point in the past is encouraged to search often.

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

(to be continued)

–

Time running out for unclaimed $67,000 Fantasy 5 ticket – Tampa Bay Online
TAMPA – Someone could be walking around the Tampa Bay area with a scrap of paper worth more than $67,000. An unclaimed winning Fantasy 5 ticket bought Dec. 6 at a Sunoco convenience store at 403 S. MacDill Ave. is set to expire at midnight June 4. On …

State has more than $795M in unclaimed property – HometownAnnapolis.com
With an unexpected windfall even more welcome during a recession, the state is pushing for residents to be reunited with forgotten property. The state Comptroller's Office recently published its annual list of new unclaimed property accounts in its …

Millions Still Unclaimed (KIMA Yakima)
A lottery ticket bought in Yakima and worth $3.4 million is still unclaimed and lottery officials are getting concerned.

Ebook By Al Chapman Jr. Boosts Housing Credits – Chattanoogan
Al Chapman, local real estate investor, said his recent ebook, concerning President Obama's $8,000 housing credit, has already reached over 700 inquiries and 500 downloads. Mr. Chapman's ebook focuses on the details of the newly signed housing credit …