State hunts for owners of unclaimed property

Missing any money?

How about unnegotiated paychecks? Accounts payable checks? Refund checks? Insurance checks? Securities or mutual funds?

The state might have them -- and nothing will make government officials in charge of that $12.2 million in abandoned cash, stocks, bonds and other valuables happier than to give it back to the rightful owners.

In Wednesday's editions of the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal, the state's Unclaimed Property Division will run its largest list of missing owners -- 12,500 -- to link them or their heirs to the money, some of which was recovered from forgotten bank safe deposit boxes.

"The funds we receive are held in trust on behalf of the owners or their heirs and never actually became the state's money," said Steven McDonald, administrator of the Unclaimed Property Division, which was created by the 1979 Nevada Legislature and is under the Department of Business and Industry.

"The original owners or legal heirs always have the right to claim whatever funds we receive on their behalf, and there is no charge for the service."

The lists are published statewide twice a year. About 4,100 additional names will be published in northern Nevada newspapers.

The August 2000 list produced some interesting results. A Las Vegas firm got $17,550 for an unnegotiated refund check that was not reflected in the corporate records. A Reno resident did even better, collecting $28,816 from a matured certificate of deposit, state officials said.

Also, a former Nevada resident living in California pocketed $15,191 in proceeds from an abandoned checking account, state officials said, noting that, in the past six months, $1.4 million has been doled out to 1,123 claimants.

"I encourage all of our citizens and businesses to carefully review this most recent listing of unclaimed property owners," Gov. Kenny Guinn said in a letter to Nevada newspapers. "While large recoveries are small in number, our state may be holding your funds or securities that you may reclaim.

"No matter what the nature of the property in our possession, you may be pleasantly surprised if you take the time to look for your name on our list."

Currently, the state is holding $5.7 million in cash and $6.5 million in shares of various stocks, bonds and mutual funds belonging to 16,647 people, officials said.

Since the Unclaimed Property Division was instituted in 1980 it has collected $105 million and returned about $22.5 million to the rightful owners or heirs, officials said.

In addition to the list that will run in newspapers statewide, the names are listed on the agency's computer Internet website (www.unclaimed.state.nv.us). A claim request can be filed directly at the website, officials said.

The agency also can be contacted by Las Vegas residents at 486-4140 or outside Las Vegas in Nevada toll-free at (800) 521-0019. Out-of-state inquiries can be made by calling (702) 486-4140.

archive