(Part 1 of 2)

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

Sadly beyond just Illinois, state treasury departments across the United States keep on taking in more unclaimed property annually than they give back to the rightful owners. Due to the fact that everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, most people refuse to believe that there are really tens of billions of dollars waiting to be claimed nationwide. Even for those few who have come to accept the truth about unclaimed properties, the best way to track these monies down eludes them in most cases.

The Prairie is State is one of those rare states that holds over 1 billion dollars on its own, which means if you're a resident of Illinois then you have even better odds of locating a claim in your name, especially after you factor in that the state has just under 13 million people and there are over 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. People who have had or know 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 handed back more than $432 million since it took control of the unclaimed property program in 1999, 84 million dollars of which was returned in 2006 alone, but with 1.4 Billion dollars waiting to be claimed and more coming in every year, the mountain of cash will keep on growing.

(to be continued)

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