(Part 1 of 2)

The state of WA is home to some of the world wide web's major players. Even Bill Gates, the U.S.' wealthiest man, hails from Medina, WA Microsoft, his company, is based in Redmond. Whitepages.com, Amazon.com, Classmates.com and Marchex also make WA their home. The fact then that more than one and a half million residents are owed more than $700 million in unclaimed money in WA State is ironic, sense looking for unclaimed money and property can be done on the internet from the comfort of their home or even the local Starbucks.

According to the WA State Department Of Revenue site, typical unclaimed money includes abandoned insurance proceeds, bank accounts, bonds, stocks, safe deposit box contents, mutual funds, uncashed payroll, utility and phone company deposits, traveler's checks, insurance, and other financial assets. Unclaimed money does not include most tangible assets such as real estate and vehicles. State Law requires insurance companies, banks, credit unions, government entities, retailers, corporations, and utilities to turn WA unclaimed money and property over to the state if the rightful owners can not be located after three to five years (depending on the type of property). The State's Unclaimed Funds Law states: "State law protects unclaimed property until it can be returned. There is no time limit for filing a claim and rightful owners or their heirs can claim property reported since 1955. The state may auction the content of safe deposit boxes, however, if not claimed within five years."

WA was actually the first state to have a working system for claiming forgotten money and property. In fact, the WA State Department of Revenue recently won the Award for Outstanding Management and Organizational Initiative for its 'Unclaimed Property E-Claim System'. The amount waiting to be found and claimed by the owners still exceeds $500 million however, despite the unclaimed money program being administered to track down more owners of WA unclaimed money and that makes claiming these funds easier for them.

(to be continued)

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