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Dayton Daily News...
Unclaimed
funds pile up in Ohio
Ohioans have left money in old bank
accounts, apartment deposits.
By Jim Otte, Staff Writer
The
state budget that was passed this
week helps balance the state’s spending with the equivalent of coins
from
underneath Ohio’s couch cushions.
The
bill gives the state the authority
to transfer $215 million of “unclaimed funds” being held by the state
to the
general fund to help cover the state’s $8 billion budget hole.
Ohio
has records of $1.4 billion in
unclaimed funds — money that was orphaned in accounts and turned over
to the
state by law. Ohioans have left money abandoned in old bank accounts
and failed
to claim insurance payments, apartment deposits, eBay accounts or even
estate
settlements left by long-dead relatives. Ohio actively markets the
fund, taking
out newspaper ads and promoting its online search engine, hoping to
unite
people and their money.
But
the legislature has also raided
the fund from time to time, according to state budget officials, on the
assumption that some of it will never be claimed.
Ohio
Office of Budget & Management
spokesman Dave Pagnard said this is a common practice and that it has
never
been necessary to replenish money taken from the unclaimed funds.
The
money in the fund comes there by a
variety of means.
Fran
Ruddell of Dayton was skeptical
when the telephone rang and a reporter asked about tens of thousands of
dollars
that the state was holding for her.
“I
thought it was a wrong number,”
Ruddell said.
Fran’s
grandmother, Goldie Adams, left
$40,000 in an investment account that had been turned over to the
Unclaimed
Funds Division of the Ohio Department of Commerce. As next of kin, Fran
is
eligible to receive the money.
“It’s
like winning the lottery. I
didn’t expect anything like this to happen. I’m so happy,” Ruddell said.
Bill
Corbin of Greenville believes
money being held by the state in the name of his mother, Gladys Corbin,
must
have been overlooked. “With some illness toward the end of her life,
there were
some things that dropped through the cracks,” Corbin said.
Unclaimed
funds exist in nearly all 50
states, and a cottage industry has been created of online search
engines aimed
at helping people find out if they have money waiting for them. There
are also
private contractors who claim a portion of the funds in return for
helping
people find them; Ohio discourages people from paying private
money-finders.
Commerce
Director David Goodman, who
took over when Gov. John Kasich took office in January, wants the
agency to
reach out more to people.
“We
are pretty aggressive. We call
people up. We try to find the rightful owner if at all possible,”
Goodman said.
The
agency has begun an outreach
program that contacts the largest account-holders around the state.
When the
person who began the investment is believed to be deceased, the effort
is made
to contact the next of kin. Distribution of the money is not automatic.
People
who apply for the money must meet state requirements for documentation.
Finding
names may be simple, but
locating the people who are owed money is not easy.
A
once-thriving business called
“Springfield Machine Tool Company” is the largest account-holder in
Clark
County, with more than $100,000.
The
company’s buildings now sit empty
on West Southern Avenue in Springfield and the former owners cannot be
found.
The
same is true for a real estate
development firm called “Dayton Wright Dunbar.” It is owed $51,000,
according
to the state. The company once operated in the Wright-Dunbar historic
district
and is not connected with the nonprofit agency Wright-Dunbar Inc.
Corbin
advises people to occasionally
do their own search for funds. He also wishes the application process
on the
Internet was easier to navigate.
Meanwhile,
Ruddell has applied for the
money left behind by her grandmother.
“I
could not be more grateful to God
and my grandma and everybody who put this together,” Ruddell said.
Read
it at the Dayton Daily News
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