Ohio holding records of $1.4B in unclaimed funds

Ohioans have left money in old bank accounts, apartment deposits.


How do you begin your search?

Click on the "Online Treasure Hunt" link found at WHIOTV.com. The State Commerce Department web site will direct you to its search page.

Top 25 people, businesses in southwest Ohio with unclaimed funds

Name

City

Amount

Bent Larsen

Dayton

$485,984.45

Nina Lund

Dayton

$485,984.45

Hematology Oncology of Dayton

Dayton

$215,712.49

Beatrice McKenzie

Hamilton

$137,990.63

David S. Palmer

Mason

$125,097.00

Greenville Electric Light

Dayton

$105,040.33

Robert J. McDevvitt Jr.

Sidney

$97,820.97

R.A. Hansen

Middletown

$96,424.00

S.J. Hansen

Middletown

$96,424.00

Springfield Machine Tool Co.

Springfield

$94,235.35

Robert J. Moore

Dayton

$87,229.02

Mary Rowe Moore

Dayton

$87,229.02

Charlene Floyd

Dayton

$77,198.86

George Mumma

Bellbrook

$73,105.00

Lloyd K. Cooley

Springboro

$69,030.05

Ruth E. Holman

Dayton

$65,831.25

Forrest E. Holman

Dayton

$65,831.25

Polly Anne Salley

Franklin

$65,054.34

Armco Steel Corp.

Middletown

$63,354.50

Norine Esther Taylor

Trotwood

$61,237.40

Mary Webb

Trotwood

$57,732.33

Mary E. Krebser

Piqua

$57,382.43

Geoffrey A. Neighbors

Tipp City

$54,942.97

Tomomi Koto

Brookville

$53,090.94

Akinori Koto

Brookville

$53,090.94

Source: Ohio Department of Commerce

The state budget that was passed this week helps balance the state’s spending with the equivalent of coins from underneath Ohio’s couch cushions.

The bill gives the state the authority to transfer $215 million of “unclaimed funds” being held by the state to the general fund to help cover the state’s $8 billion budget hole.

Ohio has records of $1.4 billion in unclaimed funds — money that was orphaned in accounts and turned over to the state by law. Ohioans have left money abandoned in old bank accounts and failed to claim insurance payments, apartment deposits, eBay accounts or even estate settlements left by long-dead relatives. Ohio actively markets the fund, taking out newspaper ads and promoting its online search engine, hoping to unite people and their money.

But the legislature has also raided the fund from time to time, according to state budget officials, on the assumption that some of it will never be claimed.

Ohio Office of Budget & Management spokesman Dave Pagnard said this is a common practice and that it has never been necessary to replenish money taken from the unclaimed funds.

The money in the fund comes there by a variety of means.

Fran Ruddell of Dayton was skeptical when the telephone rang and a reporter asked about tens of thousands of dollars that the state was holding for her.

“I thought it was a wrong number,” Ruddell said.

Fran’s grandmother, Goldie Adams, left $40,000 in an investment account that had been turned over to the Unclaimed Funds Division of the Ohio Department of Commerce. As next of kin, Fran is eligible to receive the money.

“It’s like winning the lottery. I didn’t expect anything like this to happen. I’m so happy,” Ruddell said.

Bill Corbin of Greenville believes money being held by the state in the name of his mother, Gladys Corbin, must have been overlooked. “With some illness toward the end of her life, there were some things that dropped through the cracks,” Corbin said.

Unclaimed funds exist in nearly all 50 states, and a cottage industry has been created of online search engines aimed at helping people find out if they have money waiting for them. There are also private contractors who claim a portion of the funds in return for helping people find them; Ohio discourages people from paying private money-finders.

Commerce Director David Goodman, who took over when Gov. John Kasich took office in January, wants the agency to reach out more to people.

“We are pretty aggressive. We call people up. We try to find the rightful owner if at all possible,” Goodman said.

The agency has begun an outreach program that contacts the largest account-holders around the state. When the person who began the investment is believed to be deceased, the effort is made to contact the next of kin. Distribution of the money is not automatic. People who apply for the money must meet state requirements for documentation.

Finding names may be simple, but locating the people who are owed money is not easy.

A once-thriving business called “Springfield Machine Tool Company” is the largest account-holder in Clark County, with more than $100,000.

The company’s buildings now sit empty on West Southern Avenue in Springfield and the former owners cannot be found.

The same is true for a real estate development firm called “Dayton Wright Dunbar.” It is owed $51,000, according to the state. The company once operated in the Wright-Dunbar historic district and is not connected with the nonprofit agency Wright-Dunbar Inc.

Corbin advises people to occasionally do their own search for funds. He also wishes the application process on the Internet was easier to navigate.

Meanwhile, Ruddell has applied for the money left behind by her grandmother.

“I could not be more grateful to God and my grandma and everybody who put this together,” Ruddell said.

Staff writer Gerald Fullam contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Jim Otte at jim.otte@whiotv.com

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