ENID, Okla. — Newspapers throughout Oklahoma will feature ads from the Oklahoma State Treasurer’s Office with updates of unclaimed property listings they currently hold on file.
Enid News & Eagle will run an advertisement in Sunday’s newspaper to raise awareness that thousands of unclaimed properties remain in Garfield County that need to be claimed, such as money, stocks and bonds being held by Oklahoma State Treasurer Unclaimed Property Division. Anyone who believes they might have a claim can search an online database or contact this office for more information.
“We run notification ads across every county of Oklahoma notifying people with unclaimed property of our most current list,” according to Tim Allen. The ads will run in 75 counties before moving onto Oklahoma County and Tulsa County respectively.
Allen reported that unclaimed properties totaling more than $1 billion have been placed on the unclaimed property list, many with over 100k listed properties on it.
“Garfield County residents with last known addresses have 85,999 unique properties totalling $12,502,929 for sale,” Allen explained. Of these properties, one listing stands out at $94,261 while 1,818 of them are valued at $500 or higher.
Unclaimed mineral royalties are among the top unclaimed property categories, said Allen. Mineral rights often pass from generation to generation without anyone remembering to claim them.
“It is more difficult for people to identify what belongs to them,” said Mr. Garbers.
Other large categories include unclaimed paychecks, utility deposits, income tax refunds, stocks and bonds as well as abandoned or dormant savings or checking accounts.
“We receive contents of safe deposit boxes that people have lost track of,” he noted. “Over time, banks must bring these contents to us; then, after locking them away in a vault and publishing names in an effort to locate owners for these belongings.”
Allen stated that publishing ads in newspapers “absolutely works.”
“Our unclaimed property division must prepare before running ads for unclaimed property,” he explained, anticipating an increase in claims filed upon starting.
People can search the state treasurer’s unclaimed property database at oktreasure.com in order to see if they possess unclaimed assets.
