Unclaimed Property

The bell rang at the state's unclaimed property booth at the Maryland State Fair yesterday as Jeff Sweren of Columbia found money belonging to a member of his family."

On the Internet, as Martha and the Vandellas would say, you have "nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide."Just ask Norma Mott Tillman, author of "How to Find Almost Anyone, Anywhere" (Rutledge Hill Press, $14.95). A private investigator for more than a decade, Tillman thinks the Internet is the world's greatest tool for locating anyone in the United States.As a gumshoe, Tillman has an enviable record. Over the years, the resident of Nashville, Tenn., has located more than 1,000 missing persons by conventional methods: poring over courthouse records, knocking on doors, wearing out shoe leather.

The state comptroller's office has released its semiannual listing of unclaimed property with the names of 13,000 individuals and businesses.The list appears today .Names on the list are reported by financial institutions and corporations, which are required to report unclaimed funds to the comptroller's office by Oct. 31.Insurance companies with unclaimed benefits must report them by April 30 each year.The unclaimed funds, amounting to millions of dollars, include bank accounts with no deposit or withdrawal activity in the past five years; unclaimed wages; contents of safe deposit boxes; unclaimed security deposits; and stocks and bonds.

Now where did that $8 billion go, anyway?That's the amount of unclaimed property sitting in state-administered repositories because individual Americans have simply lost sight of their valuables.They move, forget to give new addresses, overlook deposits or refunds and simply can't remember what precious items they have. In many of these cases, the individual dies and the heirs haven't a clue as to where many keepsakes and investments are stashed.After a set period in which holdings remain abandoned, typically three to five years as designated by each state's statutes, the state assumes ownership of unclaimed accounts.

Edwina Dike, come on down!Elizabeth C. Smith and Elsie A. Lee, come on down!The state comptroller's office has some very good news for all of you -- and for thousands of others joining a growing list of people with unclaimed money, stocks, jewelry or other property.Some people may be dead, others may have moved.There are businesses that went belly-up, lost track of accounts or had checks go astray.Even government agencies appear on the latest version of the unclaimed property list published twice a year by the state comptroller's office, and being distributed through newspapers across Maryland -- including today's editions of The Sun.Marvin Bond, spokesman for the comptroller, said the new list has about 21,000 names of people, businesses and agencies of all sorts with property that has gone unclaimed for five years -- bank accounts, stocks, the contents of safe-deposit boxes, insurance checks.

Lost fortunes could be found tomorrow at the Glen Burnie Mall.State officials will be demonstrating a computer that tracks unclaimed property and money, including forgotten bank accounts, security deposits and insurance benefits.State Comptroller Louis Goldstein said his office's computer records list more than 160,000 forgotten accounts, worth $60 million.The unclaimed property booth, to open at 10 a.m., is just one avenue Mr. Goldstein is taking to find the owners or their %J relatives.

Now where did that $8 billion go, anyway?That's the amount of unclaimed property sitting in state-administered repositories because individual Americans have simply lost sight of their valuables.They move, forget to give new addresses, overlook deposits or refunds and simply can't remember what precious items they have. In many of these cases, the individual dies and the heirs haven't a clue as to where many keepsakes and investments are stashed.After a set period in which holdings remain abandoned, typically three to five years as designated by each state's statutes, the state assumes ownership of unclaimed accounts.

Confined to a prison cell and armed with nothing more than court records, a photocopy machine and a bottle of Wite-Out, Michael Wayne Carroll found a way to steal thousands of dollars.What's more, his victims dutifully wrote him checks -- and mailed them to the House of Correction in Jessup."This is the most ingenious scam -- and the most creative one -- that I've seen," prosecutor William C. Mulford II said yesterday after Carroll was sentenced to 10 more years in prison. "It involvedcourtdocuments.

Postcards and fliers that offer, for a fee, to help Marylanders find out if they are entitled to any unclaimed funds held by the state are selling information easily available for free.Maryland holds $60 million in unclaimed funds, part of the estimated $5 billion held by states and companies nationwide.Marvin Bond, spokesman for the state comptroller's office, said postcards that require a $10 call to a 900 number to get information first surfaced in the area in June.Fliers advertising information for between $10 and $17 began circulating in August, Bond said.

The state Comptroller of the Treasury's office is advertising the names of 11,604 Marylanders in newspapers across the state to locate the rightful owners of unclaimed property and funds worth $5.7 million from banks, insurance companies or other businesses.An ad listing 163 people due unclaimed property totaling $18,105 is published in today's edition of The Howard County Sun. The ad also includes instructions for those who want to make a claim.The office has records of approximately 150,000 accounts worth more than $50 million.

It happens to the best of us. Just the other day, I put on a jacket I hadn't worn since last spring and - bonus! - there was $5.31 in one of the pockets. Found money - maybe enough to super size my order at McDonald's. So I'm trying to be fair and not get all "Whaaa?" over how Baltimore City somehow found nearly $40 million that was sitting around in some forgotten bank account for the past decade. Like I said, it happens: $5.31 in one pocket, a subway farecard with 15 cents left on it in another, and soon you're talking some real money.

If you have been checking coat pockets or under sofa cushions for spare change, you know that every cent counts these days. Yet a big chunk of change is sitting at government agencies just waiting to be claimed. This includes $16.5 billion in matured savings bonds as well as millions in forgotten bank accounts, insurance proceeds and safe-deposit boxes. So if you've finished rifling through closets and old purses, here are other sources to look for cash: Savings bonds: About 41 million U.S. saving bonds have matured and are no longer earning interest.

It is that time of year when the Maryland comptroller's office issues its list of unclaimed property in local newspapers. And scam artists are hot on its trail. This year, the list of 66,000 accounts worth more than $46 million first appeared in various newspapers April 3 and will continue to run through April 23. The list gives the property owner's name, address (if there is one), and a reference number for unclaimed property. People who believe they might be a match can call the Unit of Unclaimed Property at 410 -767-1700 or 800-782-7382.

Once upon a time, everything here was somebody's treasured possession: The bear-claw necklace. The wad of ancient Argentine bank notes. The Marilyn Monroe medallion. Even the cluster of keys to forgotten locks on the plastic Al's Tire Co. key tag. Somebody cared enough to hide them away in a safe-deposit box. And somebody then died or moved away or grew too broke to pay the rent on the box. Their treasures ended up on the auction block yesterday in a Hunt Valley hotel, pawed over by strangers looking for a bargain at the Maryland comptroller's unclaimed property sale.

I came across my old tax returns in my storage unit and found a receipt for an Individual Retirement Account I opened at a bank in 1987. I had completely forgotten about this account, but when I went to the bank's nearest office, I was told they couldn't help me because it had been too long and I had no account numbers to trace the account. What is my recourse? Certainly, the bank owes me not only my initial payment but also any interest accrued over the last 14 years. Nice try, but the bank probably turned your account over to the state's unclaimed property office years ago. It doesn't owe you any interest for the time since then.

It's getting easier to track money that you might have forgotten about, or money a dead relative left, with you as heir. A new Web site - MissingMoney.com - pools information from the unclaimed-property offices of 25 states and Washington, D.C. By the end of the summer, 40 states could be on board. You can look yourself up, to see if any beautiful surprises await (women should look under both married and maiden names). You can also check friends' and relatives' names. If you get a hit, the site won't tell you what you're owed, or where the money is. Only that you have a claim.

The bell rang at the state's unclaimed property booth at the Maryland State Fair yesterday as Jeff Sweren of Columbia found money belonging to a member of his family."

On the Internet, as Martha and the Vandellas would say, you have "nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide."Just ask Norma Mott Tillman, author of "How to Find Almost Anyone, Anywhere" (Rutledge Hill Press, $14.95). A private investigator for more than a decade, Tillman thinks the Internet is the world's greatest tool for locating anyone in the United States.As a gumshoe, Tillman has an enviable record. Over the years, the resident of Nashville, Tenn., has located more than 1,000 missing persons by conventional methods: poring over courthouse records, knocking on doors, wearing out shoe leather.

The state comptroller's office has released its semiannual listing of unclaimed property with the names of 13,000 individuals and businesses.The list appears today .Names on the list are reported by financial institutions and corporations, which are required to report unclaimed funds to the comptroller's office by Oct. 31.Insurance companies with unclaimed benefits must report them by April 30 each year.The unclaimed funds, amounting to millions of dollars, include bank accounts with no deposit or withdrawal activity in the past five years; unclaimed wages; contents of safe deposit boxes; unclaimed security deposits; and stocks and bonds.

Now where did that $8 billion go, anyway?That's the amount of unclaimed property sitting in state-administered repositories because individual Americans have simply lost sight of their valuables.They move, forget to give new addresses, overlook deposits or refunds and simply can't remember what precious items they have. In many of these cases, the individual dies and the heirs haven't a clue as to where many keepsakes and investments are stashed.After a set period in which holdings remain abandoned, typically three to five years as designated by each state's statutes, the state assumes ownership of unclaimed accounts.