State treasurer breaks record for unclaimed property returns

With just a few weeks left in fiscal 2012, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel has broken the record for returning unclaimed property, with $36.5 million returned to 123,000 Missourians.

Since 2009, Zweifel has returned $119 million, which represents 35 percent of all unclaimed property returned since 1985. This is the fourth consecutive year he has broken the record for the number of accounts returned, and the third time he’s set a monetary record, according to a news release.

Returns of unclaimed property began in 1985 and became part of the state treasurer’s office in 1983. The previous return records – $36 million and 120,000 accounts – were set in 2011. “We still have three weeks to go, and I expect returns to grow – I know Missourians do, too,” Zweifel said in the release.

Zweifel currently holds nearly $700 million in unclaimed property for 4.3 million account holders. Searches and claims – can be handled online, where more than half of all claims are filed, the release said.
Zweifel’s office also has created an e-mail notification system and installed search kiosks at driver’s license bureaus in several cities, including Joplin.

Among the property to be returned, there is $35 million in more than 383,000 accounts in the Southwest Missouri Region, which includes Greene County. Of that amount, there is one account in Jasper County with more than $100,000, the release said.

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