(Part 1 of 2)

In May of 2007, Illinois State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stated that the state's "Cash Dash" abandoned asset program currently holds roughly 1.4 Billion dollars in Illinois unclaimed money. The only thing getting between the cash and its rightful owners is the knowledge that it's out there and the knowledge to find it.

Sadly in addition to Illinois, state treasury departments across the nation keep on taking in more unclaimed funds every year than they give back to the people. Because everyone believes in the old "if it's too good to be true" saying, most 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 learned the truth about unclaimed cash, the best way to find 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, 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 consider that the state has just under 13 million people and there are more than 10 million names on the state's Illinois database.

Even though there are quite a few more, Illinois names the following as the most common types 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. People who have had or know someone who might have had one of these accounts at some point in the past is encouraged to search regularly.

(to be continued)

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ACS Electronic Benefit Transfer Program to Save Money and Improve Services for the State of California (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
DALLAS—-The federal government and the state of California are expected to realize a combined cost avoidance of more than $20 million dollars annually from the implementation of a state electronic benefit transfer program deployed by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. .

RI treasurer to auction unclaimed property – MSN Money
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Rhode Island soon starts auctioning off unclaimed property including jewelry and bone carvings on the Internet auction site eBay Inc. General Treasurer Frank Caprio's office said the auction begins Tuesday and ends Jan. 11 …

Local residents may have money waiting for them – Cherokee Scout
C. 60 in Cherokee County, said he had no idea he was owed unclaimed money. “I have to see it before I believe it,” he said. “I had better check it out.” While most individuals or businesses on the list are owed amounts of money from $50 to …