Pa. Treasury might have your money, and now there’s a plan to return it

HARRISBURG — The state Treasury is holding unclaimed cash and property belonging to roughly 1 in 10 Pennsylvanians and the passage of one piece of legislation would allow it to speed the return of some of that to its rightful owners, Treasurer Stacy Garrity said Wednesday.

The proposed change would allow the treasury to automatically write a check to return unclaimed money up to $5,000 to its rightful owner, eliminating the requirement that the owner file a formal claim.

The change would be “a huge step forward” in facilitating the treasury’s efforts to return over $4 billion in unclaimed cash and property, Ms. Garrity said.

Speaking in front of the state treasury’s vault, Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin, the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 24, described the measure as “truly commonsense” and said it had strong bipartisan momentum.

Pennsylvania law requires banks and other entities holding property whose owner they cannot find to eventually turn that property over to the treasury. Common examples would be retirement accounts of employees who have long since left the company, or rebates on old insurance policies. The most common issue is that the person to whom the money is owed has moved.

The treasury also holds physical assets, such as jewelry, military medals, and other valuables that are typically surrendered by banks from abandoned safe deposit boxes, by police from evidence lockers, or from other sources.

Under current law, owners must file a claim with the treasury in order to get their property back. The department has a searchable database of owner information, and staffers who try to locate owners. But it would be much easier if the treasury could just send a check after identifying the owner, Mr. DiSanto said, instead of requiring to owner to submit a claim.

SB24 would authorize the treasury to automatically return property of less than $5,000 in cases where the treasury has verified a sole owner. The change would apply only to monetary assets and not physical property, Mr. DiSanto said.

The treasury already has the means and ability to do this, Ms. Garrity said.

“Really, we already have the system set up,” she said. “We’ve already been working on it, it’s just a matter of extending it.”

Other states have implemented similar systems with a high degree of confidence and virtually no issues with the checks going into the wrong hands, Mr. DiSanto said, pointing to states such as Louisiana and Illinois.