Texas is currently holding about $6 billion in cash and other valuables waiting for their rightful owners to claim. The Texas Comptroller estimates that one in four residents of the State of Texas have unclaimed property. Examples of unclaimed property include dividend, payroll, or cashier’s checks; stocks, bonds, and mutual fund accounts; utility deposits and other refunds; insurance proceeds; mineral interest or royalty payments; dormant bank accounts; and abandoned safe deposit box contents.
The Texas Comptroller’s office receives unclaimed property as required by law from financial institutions, businesses, and government entities that are holding personal property which is considered abandoned or unclaimed. The unclaimed or abandoned property is turned over to the Comptroller’s office when the property owners’ whereabouts are unknown, and the property has been inactive on the books of the reporting company after the necessary abandonment period has expired. It is important to know that the Comptroller’s office acts only as a custodian of the unclaimed property and holds the property in a trust until such time as it can be claimed. Texas does not take legal ownership of the unclaimed property, so there is no time limit for filing a claim.
Over the past several years, the Texas Comptroller has travelled around the state to bring public attention to the billions in unclaimed property being held by the State of Texas. In fiscal year 2021, the agency paid a record $285 million in claims. This is important because since the unclaimed property program began, the Comptroller’s office returned more than $3 billion worth of unclaimed property.
In order to make the process of claiming your property easier, the Comptroller’s office has outlined a number of recent features on their website to help enable the process. The website is regularly updated with new property that has been received by their office. To find out if you are one of these Texas residents with unclaimed property, I strongly recommend that you check the unclaimed property list by visiting Texas Unclaimed Property or by calling 800-321-2274 (CASH).
If you have questions regarding any of the information mentioned in this week’s article, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. Please always feel free to contact my office if you have any questions or issues regarding a Texas state agency, or if you would like to contact my office regarding constituent services. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns, or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).
– State Representative Todd Hunter, District 32
Rep. Hunter represents Aransas County and Nueces (Part) County. He can be contacted at todd.hunter@house.state.tx.us or at 512-463-0672.
