So how and why does unclaimed property fall to the State Treasurer to take care of and return to its rightful owners?
Under state statute, any property or account that is dormant for five years is turned over to the State Treasurer’s Office. Holder of that office Clint Zweifel says before that, the places where this property turns up could try to find the owners. He says the difference is, his office has 14 investigators tasked only with trying to return unclaimed property, allowing the banks and other institutions where it turns up to stick to their jobs.
382,000 dollars has just been returned to two women in the St. Louis area. That total came from 256 separate accounts connected to the pair.
Zweifel says his office has another 600 million dollars in unclaimed property, and an estimated 1 in 10 Missourians owns a piece of that. He urges citizens to visit www.showmemoney.com to find out if some belongs to them.