This week, state Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced that a record breaking $2 billion in unclaimed property has been returned to Floridians since he took office in 2017.
“Florida continues to be a national leader in unclaimed property, and I am thrilled to announce that since I became your CFO, we have returned $2 billion back to Floridians. That’s an average of more than $6 million a week. This is huge news and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of my Division of Unclaimed Property working extremely hard to hit this record. I will continue working every day to ensure every cent is returned back to the pockets of Floridians. An estimated one in five Floridians have unclaimed property just waiting to be claimed, free-of-charge. I’m encouraging all individuals and businesses to search now at FLTreasureHunt.gov and help us return another $2 billion,” Patronis said.
With a population nearly twice the size of Florida, California returned $220 million to residents and businesses, while Florida returned nearly $350 million in 2020-21.
Unclaimed Property is a financial asset that is unknown or lost, or has been left inactive, unclaimed or abandoned by its owner. The most common types of unclaimed property are dormant bank accounts, unclaimed insurance proceeds, stocks, dividends, uncashed checks, deposits, credit balances and refunds. Unclaimed property also includes contents from abandoned safe deposit boxes in financial institutions. Unclaimed property assets are held by business or government entities (holders) for a set period of time, usually five years. If the holder is unable to locate, re-establish contact with the owner and return the asset, it is reported and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property.
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