Treasurer’s office adds to list of unclaimed assets online
Nearly 53,000 Connecticut residents and businesses have been added to a running “Big List” of those owed money or assets whom debtors have been unable to track down, pushing to $888 million the totals owed in unclaimed property.
The office of State Treasurer Denise Nappier is posting what it calls a “limited edition” of the list online at CTBigList.com. Nappier’s office is also staffing a hotline weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 800-833-7318. The website also offers a link to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Databases, which provides access to unclaimed property databases in states across the country at unclaimed.org.
Lost assets can include everything from old savings accounts, payroll checks and stock dividends, to inheritances for people who were not made aware they are heirs. To date under Nappier, the state has helped some 320,000 claimants recover nearly $730 million, including $58 million to 18,000 individuals and entities over 12 months through this past June.
The treasurer’s office website can be searched by name for free. Nappier urges people to check for not only their names, but those of relatives who have died to ensure any inheritances can be claimed. The treasurer’s office has several outreach initiatives underway, from postcard mailings to current addresses of people included on the list; to general outreach to senior centers and probate court administrators to remind them to check on behalf of people in their care.
The large majority of new names to the list are owed less than $500, but with a few notable exceptions — a dozen owners are owed more than $100,000 including one having unspecified property valued at more than $250,000. In the past year, 70 claims were
returned totaling more than $100,000, with the current list having more than 400 listing that amount, eight at amounts in excess of $500,000.
Stamford leads all municipalities on the list, with nearly 73,000 inclusions on the Big List owed more than $63 million — amounting to about half of the combined total of residents and business establishments
in the city as determined by the most up-todate estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Bridgeport, Greenwich and Norwalk rank fourth through sixth statewide for “lost money” owed residents and businesses within their borders, at a combined total of $85 million, with Danbury eighth at $18 million and Fairfield rounding out the top 10 with less than $15 million.