Veterans with Unclaimed Property

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Controller John Chiang and CalVet Secretary Peter J. Gravett Partner to Reunite 95,000 Veterans with Unclaimed Property

SACRAMENTO – After running data and cross-referencing files, the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) has identified more than 95,000 California veterans, or their heirs, that have more than $36 million in unclaimed property and cash being held by the state of California.

Following Governor Brown’s directive to work more closely with state agencies and departments to better serve California Veterans, CalVet Secretary Peter J. Gravett joined with State Controller John Chiang today to announce the findings of this new partnership.

Under a partnership agreement between the State Controller’s Office and CalVet, the department found 95,305 veterans that may have unclaimed property at the Controller’s Office waiting to be claimed. According to the data run CalVet completed, the veterans have more than $36.3 million available to claim with an average value of approximately $300.

“As Americans who enjoy the freedoms provided by their service, we support those who wear and have worn the uniform,” said Chiang. “As thanks for their duty and sacrifice, we strive to continually look for opportunities to do more for our fighting men and women. This includes this latest partnership between CalVet and my office to return tens of millions of dollars to California’s veterans.”

“The CalVet mission is to serve our state’s veterans and their families and help them connect with the benefits and services they have earned through their honorable service in the U.S. Military,” said Secretary Gravett. “This latest effort is just one of our ways to make sure our veterans are served well.”

“When someone serves in the military, many times they move around a lot and family heirlooms are forgotten, utility deposits are ignored and things get lost. This cooperative effort will help thousands of California veterans recover their forgotten, lost or misplaced valuables,” said Gravett.

Gravett noted that in order to preserve the confidentiality of the veterans’ records, CalVet will be sending letters over the next several months directly to the veterans notifying them of the unclaimed property program.

California’s Unclaimed Property Law was passed in 1959 to protect consumers by preventing businesses from keeping unclaimed property, using it as business income, losing it through mergers or bankruptcies, or drawing it down by fees. After losing contact with an owner for at least three years, businesses are required to send unclaimed or abandoned property to the State for safekeeping until the owner or heirs can be found and the property claimed.

The most common types of unclaimed property include cash or assets abandoned in bank accounts, terminated insurance policies, forgotten utility deposits, and stocks and bonds. Other types of unclaimed property include precious valuables or collector’s items found abandoned in safe deposit boxes.

As Controller, Chiang has returned nearly $3 billion in unclaimed cash and 235 million stock shares to its rightful owners, and wants to make sure that our veterans are claiming every dollar owed to them of the $7.1 billion available.

One of Controller Chiang’s proudest highlights was returning a lost Congressional Medal of Honor and Navy Cross to the family of Lieutenant Commander Jackson Charles Pharris, who received the awards for acts of bravery during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Also, the new eClaim feature in the Unclaimed Property program allows unclaimed property owners to claim single-owner accounts worth up to $500 without the “paper and snail-mail” process. More than 18 million accounts are eligible to be claimed through eClaim, and property owners can expect to receive payments within 14 days. Since launching eClaim in late January, the Controller has returned more than $5 million with an average wait time of approximately 10 days.

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Pete attended, as your representative, a press conference today jointly held by the State Controller and the CalVet Secretary which sought to bring awareness to the state's $6.9 billion in unclaimed property belonging to about 25 million individuals and organizations. Anyone (even veterans posts and chapters) can search the online database ( http://www.sco.ca.gov/upd.HTML) and see if they have any unclaimed property. Also of interest to veterans and their families are items such as unclaimed medals, wartime correspondence, photos, memorabilia, etc.

Thank you,
Pete Conaty and Associates
Governmental Relations
1107 9th Street, Suite 530
Sacramento, CA 95814
o- (916) 492-0550
f- (916) 492-8957
www.peteconaty.com


The State of California is currently in possession of more than $6.9 billion in Unclaimed Property belonging to approximately 24.9 million individuals and organizations.

The State acquires unclaimed property through California's Unclaimed Property Law, which requires "holders" such as corporations, business associations, financial institutions, and insurance companies to annually report and deliver property to the Controller's Office after there has been no customer contact for three years. Often the owner forgets that the account exists, or moves and does not leave a forwarding address or the forwarding order expires. In some cases, the owner dies and the heirs have no knowledge of the property.

What’s New: From now through spring, the Controller’s Office is sending out notices to owners whose unclaimed property will be transferred to the State after June 1. These notices are sent out annually before the property is to be transferred to give owners a chance to retrieve it directly from businesses. See a sample notice .

New eClaim Service: You may be eligible to file your claim online if:

You are the only owner listed for the property; and,
The property value is less than $500.
Note: Some properties such as cashier’s checks, money orders, royalties and safe deposit box contents cannot be claimed online, because they require additional proof of ownership to safeguard your property.

This new online feature can allow your claim to be processed more quickly than traditional paper claims, with payment generally issued within 14 days.

Video: Controller offers tips about unclaimed property (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkHthOgDAjE)

How to use eClaim (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvPiLG ... e=youtu.be)

Photos: See unusual unclaimed property (http://sco.ca.gov/eo_photos_12196.html)

The most common types of Unclaimed Property are:

Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents
Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends
Uncashed cashier's checks or money orders
Certificates of deposit
Matured or terminated insurance policies
Estates
Mineral interests and royalty payments, trust funds, and escrow accounts.

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Looking for dad's Purple Heart?
State works to return property belonging to veterans, heirs
By Michael Gardner5:59 p.m.May 22, 2014


These three Purple Hearts are among the unclaimed property being held by the California State Controller's Office.

SACRAMENTO: — This is not your everyday lost and found.

The trove includes a Silver Star for heroism, prisoner of war medal, World War I doughboy hat, a sailor’s handwritten and heartfelt letter to mom talking about surviving Pearl Harbor and a Navajo Code Talker’s Congressional Gold Medal.

All priceless, especially to the surviving veterans and families.

But the collection — and thousands of other mementos, medals, papers and dog tags — lays unclaimed.

“The last place a token of our nation’s gratitude should sit is in a vault with the state,” said Controller John Chiang. “It should go to where it belongs. If not to the veterans then to their families.”

(The state's unclaimed property list can be searched here.)

With Memorial Day weekend approaching, the state announced Thursday that it is launching an aggressive new campaign to reunite veterans and their families with long-lost keepsakes, as well as cash, stock and valuables stashed in long forgotten safe deposit boxes.

The initiative involves sending letters to some 95,000 veterans or to their survivors over the coming months. The state estimates that those veterans and heirs are in line for $36 million worth of unclaimed property.

But no dollar value can be placed on some of the property, said Peter Gravett, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, himself a decorated retired Army major general.

“Each one is worth millions of dollars in my mind, especially the medals and ribbons, because it shows a veteran served his country, may have been wounded and served above and beyond the call of duty,” he said.

For the family, Gravett continued, “It’s very personal. It makes a statement. It says our family member served their country, in most cases in a time of war, and they were patriotic and they did their duty.”

In stressing the need for the program, Chiang cited an effort made in 2007 that reunited the family of Navy Lt. Cmd. Jackson Pharris with his Medal of Honor awarded for heroism during the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

The medal had changed hands in the family and was left in a safe-deposit box that was eventually closed. Chiang’s office, under state law, receives those boxes and then tries to track down the owner or heirs.

In this case, the controller’s office found the family, including Jeff Pharris of Oceanside, who was on hand during an October 2007 ceremony at the Navy Amphibious Base in Coronado returning the medal to its rightful owners.

Chiang and Gravett hope to repeat that success with this new notification program. It uses the vast data bases of the veterans affairs department to match the unclaimed property in the possession of the controller’s office.

The items on display Thursday are still in limbo because the owners have not been located, but Gravett and Chiang hope the publicity will help rectify that.

In addition to medals, photographs and other memorabilia, there is a unique Walt Disney cartoon of a hula girl that was licensed to the U.S. Navy in 1944 for an Air Rescue Service insignia. It looks like something straight out of an “Antiques Roadshow” episode,

No waiting in line is necessary, however. Veterans and their families — as well as all Californians — can use the search function on a dedicated state controller’s website to learn if they have any unclaimed property, whether it’s cash, stock, utility bill refunds or jewelry.

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