Finance Wanted.

By Russ D Johnson

The Beaver State is known for being the home of the massive, 11,000 foot Mt. Hood, but it is home to a lesser known mountain that should be of greater interest to OR residents. Currently, Oregon unclaimed money totals more than $250 million. That's right, more than a quarter of a billion, owed to more than 1 million people. This translates in to roughly 30% of the population, which means the odds that any given citizen is owed a portion of this money are 1 in 3.

Each year, the state of Oregon receives between $30 and $40 million in unclaimed property, but only returns about $10 million to the rightful owners. Since the owners of the other $20 to $30 million weren't located, that money gets added to the total, so that $250 million on stands to grow. While it may be tough to believe that 1 in 3 Oregon residents are due a claim, these monies really come from sources that we all use everyday. The OR Department of State Lands describes some of the most common sources as follows:"Unclaimed property includes savings accounts, checking accounts, unpaid wages or commissions, stocks, dividends proceeds, refunds, money orders, paid-up life insurance policies, utility deposits and contents of safe deposit boxes."

Each type of asset can become "unclaimed" after it has been deemed abandoned. To be considered abandoned, the asset must sit dormant for a period of 1, 2, 3, or 5 years, or in less common cases, 7 or 15 years (for money orders and traveler's checks, respectively). Generally speaking though, 1-5 years is the assumed dormancy period for most of these monies. Once the dormancy period has passed, the holder is required to pass the forgotten funds along to the state, which then holds it until the rightful owner is able to track it down.

The reasons that it is difficult to reunite unclaimed funds with the rightful owners are numerous, but they generally all boil down to a lack of knowledge about where and when to search. While many sites may claim to be "official" or insist they offer a complete database, very few actually provide legitimate records, and even the official state records are incredibly unreliable. Once an asset is turned over to the state, someone at the state has to manually enter the record in to the missing money list, but this isn't done immediately, so it is good practice to check back often. Additionally, because of all the varying dormancy period lengths, a person might perform a search one day and then give up if they found no claims, when if they had only checked back the following year they might have found a significant claim that simply had a longer dormancy period.

When searching for lost money, there's more to it than simply entering a name in to the search box of any old site. Obstacles that plague rookie searchers are easy to overcome, but far to many go out on their own and are unable to locate money that belongs to them, which is why the totals grow all across the nation. Spending a little time learning professional search methods can greatly increase the odds of filling our wallets with money we had forgotten about.

Unclaimed money and property expert Russ Johnson has been assisting Americans in finding their unclaimed money online since 1997. His site, http://www.unclaimedmoney.net, is updated regularly and offers guaranteed official searches for Oregon unclaimed money and missing money across the country.