You May Have Money Waiting for You!
Posted by Rachel LaMar, J.D. | Visited 164 times, 1 so far today | Leave A Comment »
Have you checked the State of California’s Unclaimed Property website lately? If not, what are you waiting for? You may have money with your name on it waiting for you.
The State of California is required to post unclaimed property–property and money–on their website. Many people do not know about this.
About two weeks ago my mother called me and told me that I had unclaimed property registered under my name on the website. I had no idea this site existed and logged in to claim my property. I also looked up many family members and discovered quite a few had unclaimed property waiting for them. Obviously it made their day when I called to tell them.
Go to www.claimit.ca.gov. Click on “Start your search” on the left. If you enter your name and do not find anything, try just entering your last name and scrolling through the names to see if you are there. I also suggest NOT entering a city. I have moved since the time I was associated with my unclaimed property, so at first it did not show up when I entered my current city.
Once you find your name and the property registered to you, you need to claim it on the site and print out the claim form. If the money owed is over $1,000 you need to have the form notarized. You then send in all the paperwork, with necessary documents, to the State. They claim it may take 6-8 months to obtain but it’s your property, so it’s worth it.
If you are married or have changed your name, be sure to check under previous names. I did not have documentation of bank accounts I owned under my maiden name with my grandmother, who passed away, so I had to send in a lot of documents, including my marriage license, birth certificate, social security card and my grandmother’s death certificate. I also sent a letter explaining everything (I highly recommend this).
If you have any questions the phone number is on the website and they are very easy to reach and very helpful.
Best of luck and pass the site along to everyone you know. www.claimit.ca.gov. If you live in another state, contact your state offices to see if they have a similar claim site–many do!
