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WTKR News 3
Va. has $2B in unclaimed property. Some of it could be yours.
By Margaret Kavanagh,
2024-07-08
The WTKR News 3 Investigative Team continues to look into unclaimed property in the state of Virginia.
Right now, there are roughly over $2 billion and some of it could be yours.
We have been investigating this for months after people contacted us regarding their claims.
Bill Womble of Suffolk said he was very frustrated after waiting months for answers about his deceased mother’s unclaimed property.
He reached out to us for help and after we started asking questions – he said he received a check for $1,900.
Leaders with Virginia’s Unclaimed Property previously told us there is $2 billion of unclaimed property which is mostly money.
Unclaimed property could be old utility deposits, stocks, bond dividends, insurance proceeds, and in very rare cases physical property.
Virginia’s Director of Unclaimed Property Bradley Earl invited us to Richmond for a behind-the-scenes look at the operation in April.
He said national attention and social media have increased awareness about unclaimed property and driven people to file claims – causing some backlogs.
He said they implemented a new unclaimed property management program in August 2022 which “really revitalized and updated our program to make it easier to collect property coming in, but also have citizens of Virginia around the country to claim their property online by electronic means and also get a check faster.”
Watch previous coverage: Does the Department of Treasury have money that's owed to you?
Does the Department of Treasury have money that's owed to you?
In 2024 the organization set a record by paying out over $83 million, Earl said. It also surpassed over 70,000 claims for the second year in a row. Early said a new fast-track system was implemented that expedites the claim process.
But not everyone is impressed with their system.
Connecticut resident, Ron Lizzi who’s been described as a national unclaimed property watchdog says more people should be getting their money back in Virginia. He worked to change the laws in his home state of Connecticut.
“The mission of the program is to return money and right now it appears to me that Virginia is doing a poor job of returning unclaimed money,” said Lizzi.
He said he started looking into this issue several years ago and questioning why his state had such a large amount of money.
“Since when do people not want their money? It does not make sense,” said Lizzi.
Here are the charts provided to us about the amount of money collected and the amount returned:
Previously, WTKR was told by the department that on the "years we return for example $79 million, that does not mean we have returned money from just that year of receivables, it could be for unclaimed property going back years."
To get your money returned to you in the state of Virginia, you must file a claim but not in some other states like Louisiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Oregon.
If it’s under a certain amount of money, the state will send you a check without having to file a claim.
Leaders in Oregon told News 3 that this has made their system much more efficient and has greatly increased the amount of people getting their money back.
“There's no need for us to work manual claims that can be approved automatically so that our staff can really focus on those complicated claims that truly need a manual review,” said Claudia Ciobanu, the Oregon Trust Property Director.
We asked why Virginia doesn’t automatically return money to the people, organizations, or cities without them having to file a claim.
“I have had conversations with states that do, so it’s not that it’s not on our radar. We’re just not there yet to take those steps to start sending out to people,” said Earl.
He said there are also safety concerns to consider like people thinking it’s a scam or the money getting in the wrong hands.
“We just don’t want to send checks out. The person might be at the wrong address, somebody else might grab that check and cash it other than the actual owner. There’s a lot of risk factors that I’m concerned with,” said Earl.
Watch previous coverage: News 3 helps Virginia Beach man get $3,000 in unclaimed property; here's how to get what's owed to you
News 3 helps Virginia Beach man get $3K in unclaimed property
On the website, Virginia currently lists if you have between $0-$50 dollars, $50-$100 dollars or $100 and above.
This leaves people like Womble wondering exactly how much the Department of Treasury has of their money.
“I’m very curious to know. I mean $100 would be nice, but it could be $1,000 to $2,000. I’ve no idea what it is.”
To help reunite owners with the money states like Texas list a more specific address for the person and the exact amount that’s owed. We asked why Virginia doesn’t show the exact amount that’s owed.
“The purpose behind that is to protect the owners themselves. The same reason why we don’t have street addresses on the website. With access to information being readily available to anybody that’s out there. It’s really easy to impersonate somebody to get those funds,” said Earl.
He also said having a more specific amount listed could be a good idea that they could potentially look at.
Nationally, 1 in 7 people have unclaimed property but in Virginia, it is 1 in 4, according to a flyer sent out in the mail.
We asked why more people in Virginia have unclaimed property, Earl did not give an exact reason but responded through email by saying, “Our program holds millions in unclaimed property and we hope that every Virginian visits our website to check and the more that happens the more we’re able to reunite citizens with their money. This year we set a record in paying out over $83.3 million while surpassing over 70k claims for the second year in a row.”
“Their website says right on the main page exactly how much money they've returned, but they don't tell you how much they haven't returned,” said Lizzi.
Previously, WTKR was told the state has about $2 billion in unclaimed property. We asked for an exact amount but were directed to this law, “Per VA Code §55.1-2531 – saying Treasury shall deposit unclaimed property proceeds in the Literary Fund however reported property is held in perpetuity until reunited with a rightful owner."
When pressed on how much unclaimed property they have Earl wrote they “are not able to provide more information than what has already been provided.”
During our interview, he did provide information on the new unclaimed property management program which included a fast-track system.
They also advertise unclaimed property in newspapers, reach out to people who are owed high dollar amounts, go to community events, work with the media, and say they've made their website earlier and gave it a new name.
“They updated their name from.org to.gov. They’ve changed their domain name to add more confidence to the public that this is a legitimate program,” said Earl.
They also started a call center on June 10 th so the public can talk to an actual person about questions.
Every year, millions of dollars of unclaimed property funds toward the Literary Fund in the state which goes toward teacher retirement, technology, and school construction.
Here is a chart which provides the exact amounts over the last few years:
In 2023, $240 million in unclaimed property was transferred.
But some critics have an issue with this.
“Imagine that I find your wallet and it has your ID but I don't return it to you. Instead, I take the money out and I give it to charity. Is that okay? No, it's not. I just gave away your money. I don’t have the right to do that,” said Lizzi.
But under state law, the state has the right to put money in this state fund.
Earl said there is a mistaken belief that the government is trying to keep the money for themselves.
“That’s another misconception that I would love to debunk,” said Earl.
He said the state doesn’t take possession of the unclaimed money but rather they’re just the custodians of it.
“If I had unclaimed property turned over I would always have that balance of $100 or so. The actual money though will be turned over to the Literary Fund for public, general use for public good however, that $100 balance is always there to be claimed,” said Earl.
He said the main focus is to reunite people with their funds and say they are constantly making improvements.
We asked Earl if Virginia is doing a good job returning the money to the people it belongs to. He said, “I think we do a great job. I’m obviously very biased, but I think we’re doing a great job and continue to get better. In my short time here, we’ve made a ton of changes and I’m excited for what we have coming up here in the future.”
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