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SALT LAKE CITY — Remember when Geraldo Rivera made a big deal out of hoping to find treasure in mobster Al Capone’s secret vault? The event played out on live television and turned out to be pretty disappointing when nothing of value was found.
To the contrary, there are a lot of Utahns who could end up discovering their own lost treasure if they are willing to take a look into the state’s virtual unclaimed property vault.
The Utah State Treasurer’s Office on Tuesday announced that the Unclaimed Property Division received more than $37.6 million in abandoned property in the second half of last year alone. The new listings reflected more than 197,000 new properties with the last known names and addresses of people whose abandoned property was reported between July 1, 2015, and Nov. 1, 2015.
Approximately 97 percent of it was the property of Utahns, explained Treasurer David Damschen.
“In fiscal (year) 2015, we returned $22.5 million,” Damschen said. “The previous fiscal year was $15.8 million.”
The Unclaimed Property Division’s 2015 outreach campaign increased paid claims by 107 percent, he added. Despite the increasing success of the expanded outreach efforts, the state still has accumulated more than $370 million in unaccounted for property over the years, he said.
“That total has been accumulating for years and years and years,” Damschen said. “Some people just can’t be found or haven’t found us.”
The office’s mission is to keep working to track down the owners or heirs to the property, which could be anything from cash, securities, jewelry, documents, collectibles or other real property of value, he said.
While the division is bound by law to hold onto the cash in perpetuity, some items can be auctioned off and the proceeds deposited with the rest of the unclaimed funds waiting to be connected to its rightful owner, Damschen explained.
Related:
State website paying unclaimed money to 1 in 5 Utahns
The Unclaimed Property Division of the Utah State Treasurer's Office returned more than $22.5 million to rightful owners in the past year alone, a 34 percent increase from the prior year's all-time high of $15.8 million.“People often don’t even know they have money waiting for them,” said Dennis Johnston, administrator of the Unclaimed Property Division. “Perhaps they’ve moved and forgot they had a deposit with the utility company — or overpaid at the eye doctor five years ago. Either way, checking to see if you’ve lost property is simple and easy.”
Johnston advised current and former Utahns to visit mycash.utah.gov or call 801-715-3300 to see if they have lost or abandoned property that could be waiting for them.
“We urge all Utahns to look up everyone they know and help get this abandoned money back into the hands of its rightful owners,” Damschen said.
On average, claimants recouped about $160, though some collect much more depending upon the value of the property.
Though the state makes every effort to reunite property with its owner or heir, the division is allowed to recover interest on the funds as it waits to be claimed, Johnston explained. Over the past decade, the state has accrued more than $100 million in interest that has been directed to the Uniform School Fund in support of public education, he said.
