January 30, 2012
Locate Unclaimed Money in PA – Part 1 of 2
(Part 1 of 2)
Philadelphia soft pretzels, TastyKakes, cheese steaks and chocolates are not the only nice things you can find in PA. There is also the Liberty Bell, Christmas trees (Indiana County is the Christmas Tree capital of the world), steel of course, and… nice piles of cold hard cash. Well, cash from Pennsylvania unclaimed money to be exact. That's right – around $1 billion in unclaimed money is being held by the PA State Treasury and it's just waiting to be claimed by the residents it belongs to.
Owners of PA unclaimed properties are usually residents (or former residents) of the state who may have either forgotten about or lost track of their assets by changing jobs and addresses. People sometimes forget to leave a forwarding address after they move which ultimately results in undeliverable mail which often contain items like tax refund checks. Escheat laws dictate that abandoned assets be turned over to the care of the state after a number of years wherein they go unclaimed.
According to the PA State Treasury, "Each year, Treasury receives millions of dollars in unclaimed property from abandoned bank accounts, forgotten stocks, checks that have not been cashed, certificates of deposit, life insurance policies, safe deposit boxes, and other sources. Treasury maintains custody of this unclaimed property, holding assets indefinitely, until it is returned to its rightful owners." Lost assets can also come from expired gift certificates, money orders, traveler's checks, safe-deposit box contents, and uncollected or unpaid salaries and wages. As a matter of fact, $157,290 in unpaid salaries and wages were reported to have been owed by the H.J. Heinz ketchup company recently and failed to report this to the State. Under PA Unclaimed Money Law, unpaid payroll checks held by employers have to be remitted to the Pennsylvania Treasury every 2 years and every 5 years for unclaimed properties like stock shares abandoned by shareholders and uncashed company checks. State Treasurer Robert Casey stated recently, "By law, all businesses, financial institutions and legal entities must report and return all unclaimed property to the Commonwealth."
(to be continued)
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