(Part 2 of 2)

People and businesses sometimes lose track of their assets while changing names, addresses, or closing shop and just plain forgetting. Unclaimed property comes from abandoned assets like long-dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, forgotten stocks and stock dividends, insurance policies, income tax refunds, and other financial assets. The Alaska Unclaimed Property Act requires the establishments holding these to hand them over to the state if their rightful owners cannot be found after a certain period of inactivity. This 'dormancy period' in Alaska is one year for utilities, 5 years for stock shares and checking and savings accounts, 7 years for non-bank money orders and fifteen years for traveler's checks. The only tangible assets covered under the act are safe deposit box contents.


There are more than 300,000 accounts of Alaskan unclaimed properties on the state list and 12 thousand more items are added to this list every year. Every Alaska resident should do a missing money search as it is very surprising who turns up on the list of owners of unclaimed property. the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, China Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, the Russian Airline company Aeroflot, even KTVF-TV and KIAK radio have claimable cash waiting for them in Alaska. Even government entities are owed abandoned money! School districts and local governments in Kenai, Barrow, Anchorage and Juneau are among those listed in over a dozen unclaimed property accounts. The names of former State Governor Tony Knowles, his wife Susa, former Gov. Steve Cowper, former Gov. Bill Sheffield, former Lt. Gov. Lowell Thomas Jr., are also listed as being owed money. These people are public officials, easy to locate and they have yet to discover their unclaimed property being held by the state.


According to the Alaska Unclaimed Money Division of the Governor's office in a recent report, "The Unclaimed Property (UCP) staff conducts searches for property owners by selecting recently reported properties from the division's database and using online tools to locate the owners. The target is to search for 50 owners each month, however when there are fluctuations in staffing and/or workload the UCP places a priority on responding to claims requests from property owners which involves verifying claims and processing payments." In light of this, it would be in the best interests of all Alaskans to take some initiative, perform an internet search for unclaimed property and determine if they are owed cash by the state. The wild Forget-Me-Not is Alaska's official state flower, and residents would definitely not want to forget about their money being held by the Treasurer either.

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