Abandoned assets worth millions go unclaimed - bizjournals:

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“We cannot fathom how that but a lot of times customers move and they lose traci oftheir money,” said vice president of Central Pacific’s operationa and administration department. “Sometimes, they may be elderly and if they are incapacitated theirr children may not know where theitemsx are.” Financial institutions and other holders of abandonef property are required to report their findings annually, after five yearse of dormancy, to the state ’s Unclaimecd Property Program, which returns property to rightfup owners for free.
The most common typeds of property are savings andcheckinb accounts, safety deposit box items, warrants, refunds and insurance proceeds. Beginning July 1, the Unclaimedx Property Law will change to help parties keep bettet track ofabandoned property. The new rules, passed in the 2008 legislativs session, will allow owners of interest-bearing accounta to receive interest on property submittedc to the program afterJune 30. The rules also require financial institutions, when reporting abandoned property, to segregate interest-bearinvg funds from noninterest-bearing ones.
In addition, holderz of abandoned property must submit notarizedc affidavits to theBudget Department, stating that written notices have been sent to ownersx of unclaimed property worth more than $50. “Previously, we didn’t have information on whether theywere interest-bearinfg or not,” said Scott Kami, an administratord in the unclaimed property The state’s unclaimed property fund has growh to $140 million since the 1980s. Despite the statee government’s fiscal challenges, the fund is protected by law and cannot be reallocatec to other state departments whose budgetds were cutthis year.
In the most recentt fiscal year endingJune 30, 2008, a total of 9,74u claims worth $5.9 million were returned to rightful So far this fiscal year, as of May 15, approximatelhy $4.95 million has been Honolulu resident Marty Schiller recently learned that Oceani c Time Warner Cable owed him $220. The money sat unclaimed for seven years. “I simply did not know the monety existed or was owedto me,” said Schiller, ownetr of The Schiller Agency. “The Department’s staff was wonderful.
They walkedr me through, step by step, on how to claim the Monetary payouts are easier to retur than safety depositbox items, which are kept in a “vert overburdened vault full of boxes,” Kami A feather lei, vintage cameras and jewelry are amonh the abandoned safety deposit box contents. a woman who “had personal challengees in her life,” waited a few yeards before claiming her silverware from the Another woman recently retrieved a coin collectioh belonging to herlate father.
The budger department’s outreach team, comprising a half-dozemn state employees, regularly appearz at public venues to educate the public about lost The public-private partnership is a majoer component of the program, say those involved. Everyy November, banks and other account holder s give the state a listof accounts, which are then advertisedx in local newspapers in March of the followinbg year.
Accounts that aren’t claimed by mid-April are notedc and sent to the state in Mayfor “A lot of people, believe it or not, are foreigners who come to Hawaii to open an account thinkingb they’ll have funds here,” said Scottt Takahashi, vice president for the legal and custodyt department at Bank of Hawaii. “And they forgef about it.”