News

Unclaimed property program returns $36M last year

by Walter Pierce

Old savings and checking accounts, payroll checks, stocks and dividends, insurance proceeds, oil and gas royalty payments and other unclaimed money is sent to the state when a business cannot locate someone.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana's unclaimed property program gave back more money during the last budget year than at any time in its 42-year history.

State Treasurer John Kennedy says the program returned $35.5 million to 116,000 people in the fiscal year that ended June 30, exceeding the previous record by $4 million.

Old savings and checking accounts, payroll checks, stocks and dividends, insurance proceeds, oil and gas royalty payments and other unclaimed money is sent to the state when a business cannot locate someone.

Louisiana has more than $635 million in unclaimed property. People can search online at www.LATreasury.com .

Kennedy has traveled around Louisiana to try to return the money. The program will print names of people with at least $50 in unclaimed property in newspapers this month in hopes of locating them.