Why aren the Banks or Government doing anything to find unclaimed account owners?
It is not very surprising when one considers the fact that the government benefits from unclaimed assets. After 20 years all assets under $500 become public funds for use by the government. We estimate this amounts to over $1.5 million in revenues per year. Not to mention the interest on the $158 million each year! (although to be fair they do offer a small amount of interest on the unclaimed accounts, 1.5%) The banks benefits from 10 years of interest and service charges in the case of a savings accounts. Additionally, most banks also have charges after 2, 5 and 10 year for inactivity. If they did locate the owner, since they have not used the account for several years, it is unlikely that they would want to keep the account open.
