State's Unclaimed Property Division calls out residents

RICHMOND

Picture this.

While packing her elderly mother's belongings for a move, a woman discovered an uncashed $23,000 check.

As it turns out, the check was issued by a defunct bank that later reported the money to a state agency, which honored the check.

That story is just one of many true tales - it happened in Northern Virginia in the late 1990s - that officials with Virginia's Unclaimed Property Division can recount about reuniting people with their possessions.

Whether it is paychecks or tax refunds, stocks or life insurance policies, the agency's mission is to return property to its rightful owners.

The division said it would run a newspaper ad with the most recent list of unclaimed property owed to Hampton Roads residents.

Assets valued at nearly $8.7 million are on the list, a fraction of the more than $1.05 billion in unclaimed property held by the state.

In the past year, Virginia returned $17.8 million worth of unclaimed items.

Since 1961, Virginia laws have regulated the dispensation of property once it is turned over to the state.

"The money is always there for the owners, or their heirs, to claim," agency spokeswoman Brooke Bredel said. "It goes on in perpetuity, forever."

For Chesapeake resident Kenneth Bosman, an unexpected windfall from the state was a perfectly timed "blessing."

Struggling with bills for his mother's cancer treatments, Bosman was shocked to receive a letter from the state in recent weeks informing him he was owed about $6,000 from a medical policy held by his deceased grandmother.

"I needed a break," said Bosman, 40, a civilian electronic engineer for the Navy.

"To have this come at this time, I was really quite thankful."

The most recent Hampton Roads unclaimed property list includes $1.9 million owed to Virginia Beach residents, $1.8 million to Norfolk residents, and $1.03 million for people in Chesapeake.

To raise awareness about valuables held by the state, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine opened each of the transportation town hall meetings he held around the state this spring with a pitch about unclaimed property.

As a result, the owners of assets worth $65,000 were located.

Unclaimed property programs aren't unique to Virginia, where an estimated one in seven state residents have possessions held by the state.

A ll 50 states and the District of Columbia have similar programs.

According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, at least $32.9 billion worth of property is being safeguarded by state treasurers and other agencies.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com