(Part 1 of 2)

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

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

Unclaimed property in TX covers anything from forgotten savings accounts, stock and cash dividends, bank accounts, un-cashed checks, uncollected insurance benefits and money orders to gift certificates and contents of safety deposit boxes that are determined to be abandoned by their owners. The latter is the sole example of tangible assets covered under the TX Unclaimed Property Law and these are auctioned off on eBay after two years of being turned over to the State Comptroller. So if you're looking for antiques or family heirlooms that your Texan relatives may have lost over the years, your best bet is to check soon or risk letting them turn up on eBay.

(to be continued)

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Unclaimed Stock: Find Lost Shares
This week, I'm answering questions from readers, because there's an unclaimed money question that keeps coming up again and again. That tells me there's a need, so here goes. Here are two samples of the questions I've gotten:

The largest pot of

Lawmakers satisfied with handling of jackpot
… state’s $1.3 million share of the

This week, I'm answering questions from readers, because there's an