(Part 1 of 2)

In May of 2007, Illinois State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stated that the state's "Cash Dash" program currently holds almost $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 beyond just Illinois, state treasury departments across the nation keep on taking in more unclaimed property each year than they return to the rightful owners. Due to the fact that everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, the majority of people do not believe that there are really tens of billions of dollars waiting to be claimed across the country. Even for those few who have realized the truth about unclaimed properties, the best way to locate these monies eludes them most of the time.

The Prairie is State is one of just a few states that holds over 1 billion dollars on its own, which means if you are a resident of Illinois then you have even better odds of tracking down a claim in your name, especially after 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 quite a few more, Illinois lists the following as the most common sources of missing money: unpaid wages or commissions, abandoned savings and checking accounts, bonds, stock, un-cashed dividends, mutual funds, credit balances, customer deposits or overpayments, safe deposit box contents, money orders, refunds, paid-up life insurance policies, travelers checks. Anyone who has had or knows someone who may have had one of these types of accounts at one time or another is encouraged to search regularly.

The Illinois State Treasury has given back more than 432 million dollars since it took control of the unclaimed property 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 all the time, the heap of cash will continue to grow.

(to be continued)

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Unclaimed property search can be effortless, for a fee (The Oklahoman)
For people who may have unclaimed property, there may be help available to find it — for a fee.Businesses like Angela Elliott’s in Atoka help locate missing money nearly anywhere in the country. She processes the paperwork and promises the funds should be returned in six weeks if the information and people claiming the money check out.Elliott calls herself a recovery tracer. She said most of the …

Unclaimed: State tries to return forgotten cash – El Paso Times
Leo Schuster is all smiles as he is shown on a computer some unclaimed money that was found by Elizabeth Vargas of the state comptroller's office. Schuster was shown 10 different amounts of money that could be his. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times …

Civic group spurs Greenburgh effort to return unclaimed funds – LoHud.com
GREENBURGH — The town may have to find another source of revenue next year after some residents say they were never told of unclaimed money the town plans to use to balance the tentative 2010 budget. The town plans to use $836,000 of unclaimed …

AG Van Hollen: Law enforcement agencies may not retain unclaimed … – WisPolitics.com
MADISON – Responding to an inquiry from Polk County Assistant Corporation Counsel Malia Malone, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen today issued a formal opinion concerning a law enforcement agency’s disposition of seized money that may constitute …

Tracers help find Oklahoma property – Daily Oklahoman
More than $300 million is sitting in a vault at the state treasurer’s office waiting to be claimed. Nationwide, the amount is $33 billion. Free services, such as a searchable database of the 500,000 people owed money, and information campaigns at …