SAINT PAUL, MN – According to the Department of Commerce, tens of thousands of Minnesotans have over $650 million in unclaimed property being held by the State. Unclaimed property is the result of a bank, an insurance company or employer not being able to find the rightful owner of the property. To help reunite people with the property that’s owed to them, Rep. Joe Atkins (DFL-Inver Grove Heights) introduced HF 1693 to bring an entirely different approach to the effort.
“State law doesn't currently authorize a phone call or letter to people with lost property, let alone any sort of search,” remarked Rep. Atkins. Earlier this session Atkins got the list of his constituents with unclaimed property and spent 10 minutes a day finding, calling and writing to local families with unclaimed property on the list. He also used social media. "In a total of three hours, I found, called or wrote to local families with over $300,000 in lost property. That's $100,000 per hour, and it was far easier than I thought it would be," he said.
One of the people on the unclaimed property list has a daughter on the Simley High School basketball team. So does Atkins. "I sit next to Mike at almost every game. So I just told him in person that the State had $700 of his money," said Atkins. "He had no idea."
Rep. Atkins bill is being heard on Wednesday in the House Committee on Commerce and Regulatory Reform. The bill calls for: 1) more newspaper ads listing the names of people with unclaimed property; 2) more efforts to actually find and contact Minnesotans with unclaimed funds; and, 3) providing the list of constituents with unclaimed property to each legislator so legislators can notify local families themselves.
People can check to see if they have unclaimed property being held by the State, and how to get it back, at the Minnesota Department of Commerce's website: http://mn.gov/commerce/topics/Unclaimed-Property.