Back in Blogland

Hey, everyone! My report is done & the pressure is off finally, so I have some time to breathe, reflect & catch up with the doings around here. But first off-

A Public Service Announcement
As you may or may not know, I work in the accounting department of a financial institution. One of my least favorite duties is to remit money from dormant or abandoned accounts to the state. This has been my big deadline project this past 2 weeks, as we are required by law to submit the fund on or before November 1st. This year, I had to close 96 accounts & remit over $10,000 to 4 different states, because we were unable to make contact with the owners of the accounts at the address of record. In one case, the owner was 98 years old, living in another state, & all mail was returned- I had to send over $5000 to the state of record. This person could be in a nursing home & in need of the funds, or more probably is deceased & the estate is unaware of the assets.

So, here is my informed advice & good deed for the month:
1. If you move, make sure you file a change of address with your bank/credit union- the forwarding notice that you fill out at the post office will not automatically change your address- most financial institutions need a signature from you to do that
2. Open all your mail (especially from a financial institution), even if it looks like marketing stuff- to paraphrase the old axiom, you can’t judge the contents by the envelope- you may be throwing away your money
3. Make sure you have a list of all your account somewhere & list a beneficiary (somebody that gets the money if you should die)- even the little ones, like Christmas club- it will be a kindness to your family if they have to suddenly deal with your financial affairs

If you have ever lived or worked in any state in the Union, you may have an account that you either forgotten or maybe didn’t even know about. I once worked one semester as a lunchtime yard duty at my daughter’s school- unknown to me, a portion of my pay was put in a state employees pension fund. About 3 years later, after we had moved to another city, I received a check for $50 from the fund, since I was no longer employed at the school & eligible to be on the pension fund.
I strongly recommend that everyone go online to their state’s website, go to the unclaimed property division, & see if they have any money that has been escheated- this is your money & the state will return it to you. Or you can go to NAUPA website, which will give you contact information or direct you to each state’s UCP site.

Okay, now I feel better- it really distresses me to see people losing out because they are uninformed. I’ll have to come back later to tell you all about the other things going on in the garden, because I need to catch up on some “regular” work that got put off this week.