unclaimed property archives<\/a>, some of the items waiting to be returned are unexpected.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u201cYou see birth certificates; you have found baby teeth, baby shoes,\u201d said California State Controller Malia Cohen.<\/p>\n
More commonly, the state holds forgotten bank accounts, stocks, bonds, uncashed checks, insurance benefits and the contents of safe deposit boxes.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s unclaimed property program currently safeguards about $15 billion worth of property, including more than $660,000 tied to the Sacramento area, according to the State Controller\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no expiration date. That’s kind of the beauty of it,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Unclaimed property often accumulates when people lose track of accounts or assets, or when family members are unaware of what a loved one owned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps you didn’t know that your spouse had a life insurance policy or perhaps you were unaware that your spouse, who is now deceased, had a box in a bank where they were holding on to special heirlooms or special something of value to them,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
State officials say the process to reclaim property has been streamlined, with trained staff available to help residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have folks that are totally trained and professional to help people make this process as smooth as possible,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Residents can search for property in their own name or check for family members, both living and deceased.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no privacy violation in that, but once you’ve identified the property, then that person, it is best if they are still living, for them to go ahead and make the claim,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
If the rightful owner has died, claimants must prove their legal right to the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully there are no tax implications, so if you reclaim your property, it’s yours free and clear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Officials recommend making it a yearly habit to check for unclaimed property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I would advise people to do is to make a point… once a year on your birthday to claim your property and it’s really simple,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Cohen also recommends checking for unclaimed property in other states where you or your family members have lived.<\/p>\n
Email your Dollars and Sense questions to evening anchor Lora Painter at LPainter@ABC10.com.<\/p>\n
California says you may have unclaimed money<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California’s unclaimed property archives hold $15 billion, including heirlooms and forgotten accounts. SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 A quick online…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-258575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}