[January 19, 2012] Treasure Hunt:aEUR(C)More than 500 Jasper County residents have unclaimed funds Tweet Jan 19, 2012 (Newton Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- More than 500 individuals and businesses in Jasper County have unclaimed property and/or funds submitted to the state's Great Iowa Treasure Hunt program, according to the most recent records from the Iowa State Treasurer's Office. Every year, the State of Iowa collects funds discarded, forgotten or abandoned in bank accounts, business paychecks, safety deposit boxes and in stock. By state law, Iowa companies and financial entities are required to report money and property that has been unattended for more than three years. In 2011, the treasury collected $25 million in unclaimed property, and State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said that it continues to grow steadily. "Our goal is to return all this money to the rightful owner," Fitzgerald said in an interview Wednesday. "It gets bigger every year. I thought with computers it would take care of that, but it made it worse. This unclaimed property is growing." In 1983, the newly elected treasurer found the state had $150,000 in unclaimed items and money, so he proposed a program that allowed people to submit a query investigating if they or their family members had forgotten property held by the government. "I thought that was amazing. People would forget about bank accounts and stuff like that. I couldn't believe how much property was unclaimed," he said. "Then I checked with other states, and we were woefully short." The state treasury reported early this year that The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt has returned over $137 million and 2.3 million shares of stock to more than 340,000 individuals and business since the program's inception. Currently the state is holding over $222 million and over 2.3 million shares of stocks. "People get divorced, people get Alzheimer's diseases and they forget about bank accounts," Fitzgerald said. "In some instances we're talking about big amounts, tens-of-thousands-of-dollars." If a party believes the state might be holding forgotten property or funds, or to search out of sheer curiosity, treasury officials have established www.greatiowatreasurehunt.com -- a website where individuals and businesses can search their names to see if any forgotten property has been turned over. Fitzgerald said that people should also search common misspellings of a last name, as it appears to be a common way for funds to enter limbo. "Elmer P. Shaffer might have money coming to him but he just goes by Elmer, so he looks up Elmer," he said. "We're dealing in a computerized age today, you know. If one digit of an account is off, it (property) is lost in the mail or lost in the computer network somewhere." Once a person verifies the state is holding their property, an individual has to provide either social security identification and proof of address at the time the items or funds were lost. The treasury may ask individuals for old tax or W2 information to establish the address. Estates also have been left unclaimed in Iowa, and Fitzgerald said if a will is not found the assets of the deceased will be divided equally among either spouse, siblings or children. But treasury officials warned that larger amounts of money will require a more thorough verification process. But the state won't hold on to physical property indefinitely. Iowa statues require the treasury to liquidate assets held in safety deposit boxes or other storage devices every five to six years. Items will be sold at auction Stock is automatically liquidated after one year. However, Fitzgerald said there is no time limit on claiming money from the program. "Let's say it's dad's pocket watch. And we sell it and get $100, and then ten years later somebody comes forward," he said. "We say 'here's your $100 plus here is the address to the guy that bought it.'" For Jasper County residents interested to see if any forgotten property has been found in their name, a current listing of local benefactors is linked at www.newtondailynews.com. ___ (c)2012 the Newton Daily News (Newton, Iowa) Visit the Newton Daily News (Newton, Iowa) at www.newtondailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]