Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said there is hundreds of millions which have not been claimed by Florida residents.
Patronis pointed to more than half a billion dollars in unclaimed property.
“Since I’ve been in office, we broke the previously held record set in the program’s 57-year history for most returns by reuniting more than $629 million to residents and businesses,” said Patronis.
The Florida Department of Financial Services noted that unclaimed property doesn’t describe land owned by individuals. Instead, the term relates to property accounts that have been abandoned by owners.
One out of every five Florida residents have unclaimed property including utility deposits or forgotten items in safe deposit boxes.
Patronis said the most common type of unclaimed property include dormant bank accounts, unclaimed insurance proceeds, stocks, dividends, checks that haven’t been cashed, deposits, credit balances and refunds. Unclaimed property also includes contents from abandoned safe deposit boxes in financial institutions.
The CFO’s office listed by regions where unclaimed property exists. For example, in North Florida–primarily in the Jacksonville area (Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns and Union counties)–the CFO said there are more than 527,000 unclaimed accounts which total in the amount of $127 million dollars.
The state Division of Unclaimed Property allows consumers to claim their money at any time and at no cost and has a website.The CFO’s office noted documentation, like a copy of current identification reflecting your mailing address and proof of ownership, could be needed.
Reach Ed Dean at ed.dean@floridadaily.com.
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