(Part 2 of 2)

Unclaimed property is turned over to the Treasurer's Office when abandoned assets are not given back to their owners after a given period. The 'dormancy period' for Wisconsin abandoned funds is 5 years. Lost assets can come from a variety of sources – stock dividends, lost traveler's checks, forgotten bank accounts, uncashed savings and salary checks, lost or unused gift checks, and other financial assets that have been forgotten about or otherwise abandoned. The only tangible assets covered under the Wisconsin Unclaimed Property Law are contents of safety deposit boxes that have been deemed abandoned. The State Treasury Office tries to locate the owners of family heirlooms, pocket watches, sports cards, coins, jewelry, etc. but ultimately has to auction them off at eBay after three years. "There are a lot of safety deposit boxes that get turned over to us which a lot of people don't tell their kids, 'Hey we have a safety deposit box.' So we actively search for those owners for three years and if we can't find them we auction off the contents of the boxes. We do that on eBay," State Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass said.

It was stated by Wisconsin's State Treasurer in a recent interview during a report by the Wisconsin Radio Network, they simply run out of space to hold all the unclaimed properties as they continue piling up every year. "We do actively search for people for up to three years and then after that time, because we don't have a lot of space, we do have these auctions", she stated in a report recently. The proceeds from those items are then held by the state like all other types of forgotten monetary assets and are used by the state until the true owners step forward and claim them. "Until we can find an owner or an heir, yes, we do use the profits to support our office…", says Sass. These funds from auctioned unclaimed items in Wisconsin may still be claimed at any time in the future though. "You know there are people who, you know, may be in the service and are stationed over seas for five, six, seven years and then they come back and realize that their, you know, mother's safety deposit box was turned over. So, you know, they had no way of knowing that before they came back year, so we always keep the money earmarked for whoever that belonged to, so they never lose out." Sass adds. The interest that is earned on these monies helps fund things like Wisconsin low-interest loans to municipalities and school libraries.

The State Treasurer has stated that one of the biggest checks for Wisconsin unclaimed money handled by her office was in the amount of 750 thousand dollars. All the more reason that Wisconsinites should do an unclaimed money search and learn if they have some Wisconsin 'cheddar' being held by the State Treasurer.

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Take 5 minutes to do a quick online check for funds you might have lost track of.

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