Florida’s Hidden Riches

An unexpected windfall could be waiting for you, courtesy of the state of Florida.

It may be money, or it could be gold but it’s waiting to be claimed by its owner. We even uncovered cash that most likely belongs to former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The state is not suddenly exhibiting a new-found sense of generosity.

This is unclaimed property that already belongs to you, that is owed to you, but you may have forgotten about it or didn’t even know it existed. According to the Division of Unclaimed Property at the Florida Department of Financial Services, the state has about $2.7 billion in unclaimed property, dating from the early 1960s. It’s waiting to go to its rightful home. The property is in 14.2 million claimable accounts, ranging from a few cents to hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.

Most of it is money from sources like dormant bank accounts, unclaimed insurance proceeds, stocks, dividends, uncashed checks, deposits, credit balances and refunds. But it can also be the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes, including jewelry, watches, coins and other items.

These are the types of items that may be found among the auction lots available at an auction of unclaimed property being held Aug. 23-24 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in West Palm Beach. The event is open to the public.

State records show that:

In Lee County, the amount of unclaimed property is just over $86 million.

In Collier, about $49.4 million

In Charlotte, nearly $23.3 million

In Palm Beach County, more than $273.6 million.

But never fear. The property is not lost! The state is only the custodian and you can file for your portion at any time for free. Also, there is no statute of limitations.

An estimated one in five Floridians has unclaimed property waiting for them, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer. “As your CFO, I want every cent of unclaimed property to be returned to its rightful owner as quickly as possible,” Patronis stated in his most recent press release on the issue. Since 2017, his office has returned $2.4 billion in unclaimed property to Florida residents. In March alone, he returned $33 million.

Go to FLTreasureHunt.gov to see if you have any unclaimed property. Items like the jewelry above are put up for auction and the cash is saved for the owner or heirs to claim. COURTESY PHOTOS

In the Fort Myers and Naples regions (which includes the Charlotte County area), $1.9 million was returned.

In the West Palm Beach region, $5.2 million was returned.

Do you have money or property coming? All you have to do is go to FLTreasureHunt. gov and check it out.

The state also uses various methods, including database searches, to notify owners of their property.

Just think what you could do with these found dollars. Maybe it’s only enough to buy a few packs of bubble gum or a week’s worth of McDonald’s Happy Meals. You may find out there’s enough for a well-deserved vacation, a new jet ski or that home improvement project you’ve been putting off.

For example, Lee County recently released a report by Clerk and Comptroller Kevin Karnes notifying residents that there were 1,500 residents and businesses on a list that were owed $381,356 in unclaimed funds. These were 2022 dated checks that had been dormant for more than one year, said an email from Meaghan Smith, the senior communications strategist for the county clerk’s office. They included uncashed checks for county and clerk vendors, tax deed payments and foreclosure auction transactions. Court registry payments and overpayments for recorded documents, such as mortgages or deeds, were also included.

The deadline to claim the monies was March 29.

As a result, over $91,000 was collected by 29 businesses or citizens who were on the list, Smith wrote. The largest amount was over $56,000 claimed by Lee Health. The smallest amount was $18.59 claimed by a Lee County citizen, she said. About $189,000 that remains unclaimed will be remitted to the state by Wednesday, May 1, according to Chapter 717 of Florida Statutes.

In Charlotte County, there were 201 accounts totaling $29,739 waiting to be claimed, according to the county’s records department. Of that amount, 53 accounts, totaling $8,704, were claimed. The largest amount, $1,294.93, was claimed by Carpenter Homes, and the smallest, $3.68, was claimed by a Charlotte County resident.

In Collier County, the county clerk publishes monthly all outstanding checks for both the Board of Collier County Commissioners and the clerk’s office on the county website, Ilonka Washburn, projects manager, said in an email.

Collier County currently has $25,910 of unclaimed property for submission to the state on April 30, a total of 360 accounts, she said. The largest single amount of unclaimed property is $4,000.

Unclaimed funds are deposited in the State School Fund and used to support public schools. However, the original amount reported can always be claimed by the owner or their heirs.

Attorneys or private investigators might contact you and offer to recover the money for a fee but it’s not necessary; you can get your own money for free.

How can you forget you have money coming? After all, in this economy, when every cent counts, it just makes sense to get everything belonging to you.

“As far as getting people to the site, we post things all the time. The CFO is very vocal,” said a representative from the CFO’s office.

But people move away, a relative passes away and they’ll just forget about it, he said. “It’s there. We promote it. It’s just a matter of taking the initiative and doing the research, going to the website. When people find out they have unclaimed property it’s usually a surprise.”

This reporter decided to test the process by putting in my name and other pertinent information at FLTreasureHunt.gov — thinking there was no way anything would be there for me to claim. But lo and behold, there is $129.64 waiting for me from a property transaction about a decade ago. In five minutes, my application was in and confirmed by the state. Now it will take about 90 days to get the actual check. No decisions yet as to what to do with the windfall.

Who else might have unclaimed property on this list? Anyone rich and famous? High-profile politicians, maybe?

It turns out former President Donald Trump, Palm Beach resident and GOP presidential nominee for 2024, has several entities with unclaimed funds totaling $726.05.

They include:

• Trump International Golf Club, with a credit balance of $100 coming from Sunbelt Rentals Inc.

• The Mar-a-Lago Grand Ballroom, with a credit balance of $362.50 coming from Schindler Elevator Corp. and Affiliated U.S. Entities

• The Mar-a-Lago Club is owed $141.53 by Allied Universal Topco LLC.

• Trump Real Estate Investments LLC has $122.02 coming in utility deposits from Florida Power & Light

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has unclaimed funds. A Ronald D. DeSantis is listed as being owed an individual premium refund of $49.40 from The United Services Automobile Association. The address is that of the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.

From time to time, the state holds an auction of tangible unclaimed property, such as items found in abandoned safe deposit boxes: jewelry, watches, coins and more. The next auction is Aug. 23-24 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in West Palm Beach. Preview day is Aug. 23. The auction is Aug. 24.

When the items are sold, the dollar value from the sale of each item is applied to the owner’s account, where it remains indefinitely, for the owner or the owner’s heirs to claim.

A free downloadable catalog, as well as photographs of each lot, will be available online about one month before the auction. All auctions are open to the public and anyone can participate. ¦

The post Florida’s Hidden Riches first appeared on Charlotte County Florida Weekly .