(Part 1 of 2)

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

Sadly in addition to IL, state treasury departments across the United States continue to take in more unclaimed money each year than they give back to the citizens. Because everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, most people refuse to believe that there are truly tens of billions of dollars that can be claimed across the country. Even for the handful who have come to accept the truth about unclaimed assets, the best way to find these monies eludes them more often than not.

The Prairie is State is one of only a few states that holds over 1 billion dollars on its own, and that means that if you are a resident of IL then you have even better odds of tracking down a claim in your name, especially after you consider that the state has less than 13 million people and there are more than 10 million names on the state's IL list.

Even though there are quite a few more, IL names the following as the most common types of missing money: abandoned savings and checking accounts, unpaid wages or commissions, stock, bonds, mutual funds, un-cashed dividends, customer deposits or overpayments, credit balances, refunds, money orders, travelers checks, paid-up life insurance policies, safe deposit box contents. People who have had or know someone who may have had one of these accounts at one time or another is encouraged to search frequently.

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

(to be continued)

–

50,000 lottery prize unclaimed in Hampshire – This is Southampton
COULD it be you? One Hampshire resident could be £50,000 richer without even knowing it. Lottery bosses are urging anyone who has had a recent flutter to check their ticket after it was revealed the prize money of £50,503 had not been claimed. The …

Texas May Be Holding Your Unclaimed Cash (NBC Dallas Fort Worth)
The state comptroller is holding unclaimed money belonging everyone from police departments to schools — and even elected officials.

Texas May Be Holding Your Unclaimed Cash – MSNBC
It's your money, but you have to claim it. The Texas State Comptroller keeps a list of money owed to people, either from refunds, undelivered checks or cash left in a will. But businesses are also on that list, and some of them could use the money …

Unclaimed property auction sends money to state school fund (The Gresham Outlook)
Oregon’s Department of State Lands hosts an auction Saturday, June 20, in Salem of unclaimed property. The auction starts at 9:30 a.m. at Parrish Middle School, 802 Capitol St. N.E. A preview is planned Friday, Jun 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the school. Doors to Saturday’s auction open at …

Drug cartels in Mexico killing street dealers (San Francisco Chronicle)
Drug dealer Hector Rodriguez Estrada had a feeling he was next. His boss was beaten to death and dumped in an empty lot, his teeth and fingers missing. Then one of Rodriguez's underlings turned up in a soccer field, his head next to his body. Rodriguez, 30,…