The government requires unclaimed money be turned over to state. Now they are passing bills to spend this money that may belong to you! Are they legalizing theft

Unclaimed money accounts in the United States total over $25 BILLION dollars. The money ends up in these account do to the governments "escheat laws" requiring institutions such as banks to turn over funds from dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, unused gift cards, etc. States are now passing bills to spend the money from these Unclaimed Property Trust Funds.

These funds are owed to millions of Americans and instead of making any sizable effort to contact the rightful owners, the state is now proposing to spend this money to handle there own budget problems.

States are passing bills allowing them to use the missing money funds. One such case is a Bill was passed last year in Arkansas. The Bill was created impart to allow the State to transfer up to $15,000,000 of funds from the "Unclaimed Property Proceeds Trust Fund" to the States General Improvement Fund. The subtitle of this Bill states the funds are to be used "...to provide additional funds for the State budget".

Some states such as Indiana and Iowa require that 60% of the money from unused expired gift certificates be sent to the State and 40% remain for the retailer. George Delta, from the counsel to the Incentive Marketing Association, stated "States require businesses to give them some type of periodic report of the amount of unclaimed property they are holding. This allows the state to monitor this potential source of income."

With the states experiencing such great budget benefits from the unclaimed property funds, they have little incentive to locate the rightful owners of this money.

In the state of California the lost funds have reached over $5 billion and it is estimated 1 in 5 have unclaimed money. How hard is it to find Ryan Seacrest, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Benicio Del Toro? They are all owed money from California's state database. Microsoft is owed over $25,000!!! California's Unclaimed Property Trust Funds is likely to be a target piggy bank for the CA Governor to use to assist with the states budget issues.