(Part 1 of 2)

People say everything is bigger in the Texas- the longhorned bovines, cowboy boots, prairies, steaks, cars, and piles of money. Texas unclaimed money that is. Texas comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has almost $2 billion in unclaimed assets to give away to her state's residents. Well, it isn't so much giving away as giving back since the lost cash was theirs to begin with. The funny part is that most of the two hundred thousand residents owed Texas unclaimed funds don't even realize they have money headed their way.

People often forget to collect insurance checks or salary when they get new jobs or move to a new home. They also often forget to leave forwarding addresses after they relocate which is one of the main reasons for lost checks. When businesses and financial institutions cannot find the owners of these missing financial assets for 5 years (in Texas), they're turned over to the state as dictated by Texas Unclaimed Funds Law which follows the country's escheat laws. The unclaimed property sit in the Texas state Comptroller's office until the rightful owners step forward to claim them.

Unclaimed property in Texas covers anything from forgotten bank accounts, savings accounts, stock and cash dividends, uncollected insurance benefits and money orders to gift certificates, un-cashed checks and contents of safety deposit boxes that are determined to be abandoned by their owners. The latter is the only example of tangible assets covered under the Texas Unclaimed Funds Law and and they are sold off on eBay after two years of being turned over to the State Comptroller's office. So if you are looking for family heirlooms or antiques that your Texan relatives might have forgotten about at some point, it's best to look soon or risk allowing them to show up on eBay.

(to be continued)

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