(via Radio Iowa) – Inflation is making the dollar not go as far as it used to and that is a good reason for you to be sure you haven’t left any money unclaimed. State Treasurer, Michael Fitzgerald, says his office may be holding some or your dollars. )The State of Iowa is holding 460 million dollars — we have about a million names. It could be an estate — most of them are individuals — but it could be business, a church a little league,” he says.
The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt seeks to get that money back to those who maybe didn’t even know they had it coming. “Last fiscal year, January to December, we brought in 49 million dollars that belonged to Iowans. And our goal is to return every penny of it — but it just comes in so fast we can’t do it,” Fitzgerald says.
Fitzgerald says there are a lot of ways people leave money behind. “People still forget about bank accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts, and lockboxes. People buy stock and they forget about it or they move and for some reason the company can’t find them and send them dividends and it becomes abandoned and they send it to us,” Fitzgerald explains. “Check do get lost in the mail. And in this day and age — and they think it is junk mail.”
Fitzgerald says you can go to the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt website and enter your name to see if there’s anything there that belongs to you. “Put in your whole name like Michael Fitzgerald instead of just Fitzgerald, it will narrow it down. But if you just put in your last name and you might see some of your relatives on there. This is all public information,” Fitzgerald says. “So we ask people after you check your own name peruse it, you might see some of your relatives…check it out you might help somebody else find their money.”
Go to www.greatiowatreasurehunt.gov to see if you have any unclaimed money.
