(Part 1 of 2)

In May 2007, IL State Treasurer State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stated that the state's "Cash Dash" abandoned asset program is holding roughly 1.4 Billion dollars in Illinois unclaimed money. The only thing getting between the cash and its true owners is the knowledge that it's out there waiting to be claimed and the knowledge to locate it.

Sadly in addition to IL, state treasury departments across the country keep on taking in more unclaimed money each year than they return 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 really tens of billions of dollars that can be claimed nationwide. Even for the handful who have realized the truth about unclaimed properties, the best way to track these monies down eludes them more often than not.

The Prairie is State is one of those rare states that is holding over a billion dollars on its own, and that means that if you're a resident of IL then you have even greater odds of tracking down a claim in your name, especially when you consider that the state has just under 13 million people and there are more than 10 million names on the state's IL database.

Although there are quite a few more, IL lists 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. 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 frequently.

(to be continued)

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State looking for owners of unclaimed billions – msnbc.com
The comptroller's Office of Unclaimed Funds is holding several events around the state this month to help people check to see if they're owed any money from an unclaimed tax refund, forgotten bank account, insurance claim, or utility rebate.

New York state looking for owners of unclaimed money – Times Herald-Record
ALBANY (AP) — The state comptroller's office has nearly $10 billion in unclaimed funds and is looking for the rightful owners. The comptroller's Office of Unclaimed Funds is holding several events around the state this month to help people check to …

New York State Wants to Give You Back Your Money Now – Village Voice (blog)
… we can tell you about the very best part of the Office of the State Comptroller's website : The Unclaimed Funds section. Where, currently, $9.9 billion sits just waiting for someone to remember it. The money comes from long forgotten bank …