Points out why it's important to maintain activity on your safe deposit boxes and consider insuring the contents. Some states have been aggressive in declaring the contents "unclaimed" and they auction the contents and keep the money.
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States suck.
thok said:States suck.
Feds suck. Oh crap, civil war, ducking. 
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Government sucks 
But what I'm amazed with what ease these things are claimed. The lady paid her dues what other type of activity do they want on safe deposit boxes? Should I be visiting that diamond monthly to make sure it's still a diamond. Kind of disturbing that no letter or any effort was made to contact these people.
"There is always going to be money to give the owners when they make their claim, " Chiang insisted. "I don't want my legacy to say I continued a broken program. I want my legacy to be 'this guy was the guy who truly cared about the people and returned their money.'"
Chiang, you walking sack of feces, you were a willing thief until a judge put a restraining order on you. Now you want to take credit for being forced to quit stealing.
In Chicago, if you haven't moved your vehicle for more than 7 days (i.e. went on vacation) or you vehicle is ugly ("Is a hazardous dilapidated vehicle left in full view of the general public, whether on public or private property."), they can tow it as abandoned. In 15 day's your vehicle is sold for scrap (about $150).
So, in Chicago, you can lose your vehicle in as little as 3 weeks and only receive $150 compensation for it.
Anyone want some leads on buying a Condo in Chicago that doesn't come with a parking space??
Quote from article:
Protecting Your Property
So, the question for citizens is, how do you protect yourself?
Make contact with your bank, your brokerage firm, etc. at least once a year, in a way that creates a paper trail. Make sure they have your current address.
If you own stock, occasionally vote your proxies or take other steps to keep your stock ownership active. Stay in touch with your broker.
Write a list of all your accounts and keep it with your will, so your heirs will know where to look.
Consider insuring valuables even if you keep them in your safe-deposit box. That way, you're covered financially if the bank or state makes a mistake and empties your box. Plus, safe-deposit contents have been known to be destroyed by fire or flooding.
I literally got naucious reading this. This is a fraud and criminal activity. Where is the Justice Department? I hope these people sue California for all they can get. I normally am not for most lawsuits, but this activity is beyond defense. Truly disguisting!
ck08 said:I literally got naucious reading this. This is a fraud and criminal activity. Where is the Justice Department? I hope these people sue California for all they can get. I normally am not for most lawsuits, but this activity is beyond defense. Truly disguisting!
Wouldn't the state have to voluntarily waive sovereign immunity?
this is so wrong
kranky said:Link to abcnews.com story
Points out why it's important to maintain activity on your safe deposit boxes and consider insuring the contents. Some states have been aggressive in declaring the contents "unclaimed" and they auction the contents and keep the money.
Wow, just WOW. This is sooooo wrong. How do we find each states' practice for "abandoned" lock boxes? We have a "free" lockbox with our bank, but I wonder if this can become "abandoned" if, for instance, you do not access it for a certain period....?
This is absolute insanity.
Unclaimed property laws serve a useful purpose. The business should be required to attempt to contact the substantially before it reverts, though, and with much more broad definition of "contact".
I have had a bank account revert to the state once--they called while we were on vacation, I get home, call them back and they tell me I need to get the money from the state. No big deal, the reason I had left it around had become moot not too long before and I just hadn't gotten around to closing it.
What they are describing with safe deposit boxes is utterly insane, though. Safe deposit boxes normally have fees--paying that fee certainly should count as contact! If they don't it's because of a high balance and that almost certainly means plenty of other transactions.
I also have no problem with the state making used of seized *MONEY* (goods should be kept around for quite some time) but that shouldn't keep it's owner from claiming it no matter how far in the future.
I don't have a problem with states spending the money, as long as they pay you when you go to claim it. They should probably be required to pay interest on it, though. Otherwise, they're effectively charging you a fee for holding onto your money for you.
This is how our beloved government works:
If you don't pay your tax, the government will do anything it can to find you. And then it'll make you pay for the tax PLUS interest PLUS penalty.
If it has your belongings, it just doesn't know how to find you. The government will find any excuses not to find you. And then if you somehow are able to get your belongings/money back, forget about getting interest. You should be happy that you get 100% of your principal back.
taxmantoo said:"There is always going to be money to give the owners when they make their claim, " Chiang insisted. "I don't want my legacy to say I continued a broken program. I want my legacy to be 'this guy was the guy who truly cared about the people and returned their money.'"
Chiang, you walking sack of feces, you were a willing thief until a judge put a restraining order on you. Now you want to take credit for being forced to quit stealing.
If he was responsible for this or if his department was, then I have more respect in him if he admits that he is wrong and then he resigns.
Well, maybe that's la-la land, not California.
escheat is a fun word.
Think about the alternative.
If California wasn't stealing that $5 billion, the state would collapse. California can't print its own currency, issue stimulus checks, or any of the other tricks the Fed uses to keep the scam going. All California can do is take money from residents, and use it to put increasingly larger Band Aids on the state's problems.
Sure, you can pretend like you're immune from the problems California's economy faces, and you can suggest that California slash the budget...stop providing medical care for illegals, etc. However, if the state did those things, riots would envelop all of So. Cal. THAT would be expensive to fix.
So, Sacramento is left with the only viable alternative: steal money from the unclaimed accounts...and use it to buy bigger Band Aids.
As the economy continues to contract, this problem will spread to other states, and other creative methods of taking our money to feed the monster.
What? Did you really expect state legislatures to let you keep your money, while the state's coffers ran dry? That's funny.
Psycho41 said:I don't have a problem with states spending the money, as long as they pay you when you go to claim it. They should probably be required to pay interest on it, though. Otherwise, they're effectively charging you a fee for holding onto your money for you.
That works for bank accounts, where giving you back the money settles it. But people who had the contents of SDBs auctioned off can't be made whole. In the linked article one woman had $82,000 of jewelry sold for pennies on the dollar, and the important papers she had in her SDB were shredded. No way to fix that.
Isn't it so much better to spend than to hoard?
(is Warren Buffett reachable?)
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