If you do find "Unclaimed Property" @ the state controllers website and claim it, depending on where the funds are from you need to pay taxes on it. If its insurance/or from an insurance company it should be tax free. But if not Id ask your accountant. in 2009 I found $13,000.00 that was dividend/stock related money from Prudential Securities. I did not think twice about taxes when I claimed the money and never received any tax forms for the money at any point. Well 2 months ago I went to the ATM only to notice my account was short over $13,230. Last year someone did Identity theft and cleaned out my checking account to the point that B of A closed my account because of the negative balance. B of A reopend a checking account (diff acct number) for me and apologized and refunded all service fees to me and returned my money. So when I saw the discrepancy in what I knew my balance was vs what was printed as my balance I thought I was a victim of fraud again. Well when I went into the bank to inquire about the missing money, I was told it was the CA Franchise Tax Board. Basically the daily compounded penalties and interest for over 5 yrs, was more than what I received from the Unclaimed property. Lesson is make sure you do or do not have to pay taxes on the funds. I found more unclaimed property couple weeks ago and will not bother to claim it as it's more hassle then its worth for me. Oh and in 2009, the state of CA had no budget and was broke, so they were issuing IOU's instead of checks. So I held on to my IOU from June till Sept, and then when it was announced that CA was redeeming IOU's for checks I decided to fly to Sacramento to redeem my check as not to wait, just in case they ran out of funds...lol. This post was edited by freak4plumeria on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 16:37

After my mother in law died, we found her name. She had $200 coming from an old insurance policy that she probably didn't even know about. After we realized that it would have to be split among seven families, we decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Forms to fill out, copies of death certificate, etc. etc.

Yes, check the online site first--that's where I found that there was money in Mom's name. So I wrote to the dept, to find out exactly what I needed to do, as the executor, to claim it (and I couldn't tell from the online entry, how much was in the account). In all honesty, when I wrote the letter, I didn't know if it was .12, $12, or a fortune. Turned out to be significant, but not staggering. Now I just have to see how long it takes for the check to get turn up. Oh, and always send documents 'return receipt requested'.

Sounds like a few people here had Good News by searching Unclaimed Property websites! Mine was only for $140.15, but still. And, yes, it is a total mystery why this popped up at this very late date. Makes me wonder how this was handled in pre-internet days, though I do seem to recall seeing a very long list of such items published in a local newspaper maybe 20 years ago. Maybe that was required that at least California did this periodically. Or maybe the State just kept it. BTW, speaking of such lists in newspapers, when I was going through my local archived/microfilmed newspapers recently from around 1910 or so, they used to publish a long list of undeliverable U.S. Mail for my city's residents from time to time. "Come & Get It" I guess. I found that system amusing.