Attorney General Greg Zoeller made a stop in Warsaw Tuesday afternoon to discuss unclaimed property.
In 2014, there was $3 million paid back in unclaimed property in Kosciusko County.
“Last year more than $66 million was returned in the state to the rightful owners,” Zoeller said.
He is advising people to visit indianaunclaimed.gov to see if they have unclaimed property.
Zoeller said it is important to get the unclaimed property returned.
“In most states the treasurer runs unclaimed property, but I’m the only attorney general in the nation where this is one of my missions to find the rightful owner and get the money back to them,” Zoeller said. “This is not the state’s money, it is someone in Indiana’s that we have a duty to really try to re-engage and reconnect them with their unclaimed lost funds.”
Unclaimed property is any financial asset with no activity by its owner for an extended period of time.
“Unclaimed property is primarily stocks and bonds, interest dividend payments and a lot of utility deposits that move from place to place,” Zoeller said.
This may include unclaimed wages or commissions, savings and checking accounts, stock dividends, insurance proceeds, underlying shares, customer deposits or overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, money orders and safe deposit box contents.
“Ninety-nine percent of all of the unclaimed property is money so it is nothing to do with homes or cars,” Zoeller said.
Zoeller said everyone who finds unclaimed property didn’t know that they had it.
“If people say I could never have unclaimed property, that is the person we are asking to look because our total today is over $400 million of unclaimed property in Indiana that has built up over the years,” Zoeller said.
In 2014, more than 42,000 new properties valued at more than $6.8 million were reported and originated from the eight-county North Central Indiana region including Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Marshall, Pulaski, Saint Joseph and Starke counties.
The money belongs to residents or former residents of the area and their heirs. The state holds these assets for 25 years after they are reported.
The Office of the Indiana Attorney General publishes the names of all unclaimed property owners (as reported by the holder) in newspapers across the state, broken up by county.
According to state law, properties turned over in a given calendar year must appear in the newspaper by Nov. 30 of the following year.
Unclaimed property for Kosciusko County was published in the Times-Union March 5 and will again be published Friday.
