Illinois Commentary

Helping you claim your unclaimed property

One of the great pleasures I have as Illinois State Treasurer is giving people back their money. How many other elected officials can say that?

Through our Unclaimed Property Division, we help reunite individuals, businesses and organizations with money that rightfully belongs to them. Sometimes it's a paycheck that wasn't cashed, a bank account that was forgotten about, or the proceeds of an estate that no one knew about.

Under Illinois law, unclaimed property is turned over to the state by holders (financial institutions, insurance companies, businesses, etc.) after five years and what is called "due diligence" in trying to find the owner. Once we receive the property, we make every effort to track down the owner because we want to give them back their money. We list the names of the newest unclaimed property holders every six months in newspapers across Illinois. A database of nearly five million names is on our Web site (www.cashdash.net). We take laptops on the road to community events, club meetings, malls, county fairs, festivals and anywhere we can set up to get the money back in your hands. We leave no stone unturned.

Many people ask me how property becomes unclaimed. There are a number of ways and reasons it happens. You open up a checking account at college, graduate, move away and forget about it. You move into a different house, write a utility deposit check and never get the deposit back. Your parents had a safe deposit box they never told you about and after it's been inactive for five years, the contents get turned over to the state.

One of the best ways to make sure you don't have unclaimed property is to keep good records and to let your family or trusted friends know what you have. I know it goes against our grain to talk about money, but if you don't let someone know, your money will end up with me, and it's no good to you if I have it.

The good news is you can claim your property at any time. Illinois is a custodial state. We never take possession of your money or goods. We safeguard it until you or your heirs claim it. The bottom line is if your greatgrandchildren can prove those stocks turned over to us were yours and that they are your heirs, they will get the money back.

Sadly, some of our unclaimed property comes to us in the form of the contents of safe deposit boxes. Often, a person dies and no one knows about the safe deposit box. So the fees go unpaid and eventually the box is drilled, the contents emptied and shipped to us. We log the name of the box's renter and the box's contents into our computer system and try to find the person, or his or her heirs. Many times we run into a brick wall and we have no choice but to hold regular auctions to free up storage room. The proceeds from the sale are kept on account in the safe deposit box renter's name, but it always saddens me that so many people's family histories end with us.

We won't auction military medals. I believe it would be disrespectful and unpatriotic to auction medals that were earned in service to our country. We try and reunite these medals with their owners through our "Operation Search and Restore" program. We take a display of the medals to various veterans groups and civic and community organizations to see if we can match people up with the medals. Contact my office to have the medals brought to your next club or organization meeting.

Our services are free. Beware of finder firms that charge you to get back what's yours. Instead, please search our Web site at www.cashdash.net, call our office at (217) 785-6998, or write to us at: Office of State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, Unclaimed Property Division, P.O. Box 19495, Springfield, Illinois 62794-9495.

Judy Baar Topinka is serving a third consecutive term as Illinois State Treasurer. Prior to being elected Treasurer in 1994, Topinka served 14 years in the Illinois General Assembly.

The opinions and views of guest commentators are their own and may not represent those of the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives or the electric coops of Illinois.

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