Kansas treasurer announces record year of unclaimed property returned

* Nearly $14.6 million returned to nearly 54,000 claimants.

Herald-Tribune

For the second year in a row, the unclaimed property division of State Treasurer Dennis McKinney's office has worked to return a record breaking amount of money to Kansans. In the 2010 fiscal year 53,913 properties which was a 40 percent increase over 2009, totaling nearly $14.6 million a 34 percent increase over 2009 was returned to its rightful owners. The average amount of a return was $271. The largest return to an individual during that time frame was $108,259.15 and over $146,000 to a business.

Based on one of Kansas' first consumer projections laws enacted over 30 years ago, approximately $25 million in unclaimed property has been turned over to Treasurer McKinney's office this year.

"With only eight full time staff members, we manage to do more with less. The staff in the unclaimed property division continue to come up with new and innovative ways to return to Kansans what is rightfully theirs," said McKinney. "I know that in this economy there are many families who need their money. We want to return these funds can put the money to work creating jobs and commerce." In an effort to increase efficiency, Treasurer McKinney's office offers paperless filing for claims under $2,000. Over 610,000 claims are eligible for paperless filings.

Since the inception of the unclaimed property program more than $132 million has been returned to rightful owners with the largest single individual return of $347,000. Currently the Treasurer is working to rightfully place as much as 1.2 million properties estimated in value of over $200 million with the rightful owner "I have made it one of my top priorities to indentify the owners of this unclaimed property so this money can be put it to work creating jobs and growing the economy" McKinney declared.

There is never a charge to search for your unclaimed property. To see if you have unclaimed property, you can visit www.kansascash.com or call Treasurer McKinney's office at 1-800-432-0386.