Every year across the United States, billions of dollars go unclaimed. These assets are held by state and federal Treasuries until their rightful owners are found. Anyone who has lived or worked in the United States can check these financial repositories to see if any dollars are owed to them or a family member. Here’s an overview:
Unclaimed assets arise from a wide range of sources. Unclaimed cash can come from a variety of incomplete financial transactions, including abandoned bank accounts, uncashed checks from previous employers, investment dividends, utility overpayments, insurance company payouts, and uncollected security deposits. Estate settlements and safety deposit boxes also can yield unclaimed property.
Sometimes owners can’t be tracked down. A change in residence, marital status, or employment can result in undelivered mail, which in turn can lead to unredeemed payments. Businesses are required by law to make reasonable
efforts to reunite owners with their assets. Uncollected cash and property must be turned over to the government following the legal “dormancy” period. Unclaimed assets often sit unclaimed in government coffers because the owners are not aware of their existence.
Online databases make it easy to search for unclaimed assets. Anyone can find out if they have unclaimed cash or property owed to them or a family member. They can do so by searching the free online databases operated by the states in which they have lived, worked, invested, or conducted business. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) maintains a list of unclaimed property websites for all 50 states at www.unclaimed.org. The federal government also provides a list of databases of unclaimed money at www.usa.gov/ unclaimed-money. Periodic searches, especially following a life event change such as a move, change of employment, or name change, can reveal unclaimed assets.
The claims process starts online. Claimants will be asked to substantiate their right to the property. This process often requires uploading or mailing documentation that proves ownership. If the claimant is the right-
Heart Transplant No Holiday for Jim Holaday
Most everybody in Henry County, and a lot of SE Iowa, know Jim Holaday. Back in the early nineties he started a business called Holaday Satellite, installing 10’ satellite dishes. Remember those? Jim’s reputation as a hard worker and provider of excellent equipment and service was well established. He had a young man, Efrain Gutierrez, working for him who dug the 4’ deep holes for the center post. The 10’ dishes were soon replaced by the smaller saucers of Direct and Dish, and Jim Holaday worked seven days a week installing them.
Jim eventually sold Holaday Satellite to Efrain and became an employee of Holaday Satellite. The well known name of Holaday Satellite remained the same. Why change a name that’s time honored?
Recently, Jim, in his mid sixties, noticed that he was, on occasion, short of breath. When this happened, he would take three aspirins and, in halfan-hour, feel better. He didn’t give it much thought. Efrain was doing most of the heavy work anyway, so it all worked out.
However, on June 3rd of this year, Jim was sitting in their Mt. Pleasant office sweating profusely. He soaked three paper towels. Efrain, not liking how Jim looked, said, “I’m taking you to the Emergency Room. Let’s go.”
“Naw. I’m all right,” Jim said. “Now. You’re going.”
Long story short, Efrain took Jim to the emergency room at Henry County Health Center (HCHC).
HCHC transported Jim by ambulance to the SE Iowa Regional
Health Center in Burlington (Great River Medial Center), and Great River air lifted Jim the next day to the University of Iowa Hospital. He was there a weekand-a-half. His heart was barely functioning, even after installing balloons to open up clogged arteries. They sent Jim home to die. However, the heart of a 35-year old person became available. Jim was called back to the University of Iowa Hospital and they told him he was going to have a heart transplant the next morning. Jim actually video recorded the heart arriving at
the hospital. On Sunday morning, August 4th, at 6:00 am, Jim under-
went eight-and-a-half hours of surgery to receive a new heart. He came to with a tube down his throat and another in his nose. He could barely move his arms, they were so
swollen with fluid. But he was alive. He’s just now starting to get his voice back. All-in-all, Jim was in the hospital three months, minus the week-anda-half he was home. It took him a while to regain the use of his hands to where he could feed himself. He thanks his life partner for the great care she gave and continues to give him.
Jim now sits in the office in Mt. Pleasant and lets Efrain do most of the work. Jim doesn’t even answer the phone because it rings through to the Holaday Satellite office in Burlington. If
Unplanned Encounters
It was still dark outside this morning when I poured myself a cup of coffee and headed for the porch with my trusty guard dog, Billie. Being a standard poodle, Billie is large and aggressive enough to protect his territory from most intruders. He will protect my wife and I from strangers and keep the deer and rabbits out of his yard, if he is not sleeping on the couch. This morning when we stepped out the door, he froze in his tracks. He did not bark, but I could tell there was something in the darkness that had him confused. He was not sure whether to attack or retreat to his safe place, behind me. I flipped on the porch light. A small toad hopped along the edge of the porch as Billy watched it closely. I assured him the toad meant us no harm. Not entirely convinced, he gave the toad a wide berth as he went to make his rounds in the yard. The toad was making his way to the end of the porch, gobbling down an occasional bug as he went when Billie returned. He again circled well around the toad, not sure of what it was. He is more familiar with frogs than toads.
We have several tree frogs that frequent the porch. They mind their own business, eating bugs, and hop away if approached by a dog. Billie pretty much ignores the tree frogs. A person usually sees them early in the morning or near dusk. They spend most of the midday hiding in a shady spot, keeping cool. I discovered this one mid-morning when I went out to do some work in the yard. I always have a pair of shoes on the porch, near the back door, so I can change out of my good shoes when I am going to do something that will get them dirty. As I pushed my foot into the shoe, I felt something cool squirming under my foot. It is amazing how fast a person can remove a shoe when they discover something alive sharing space with their foot. I turned it upside down and shook my shoe. A fat little tree frog fell out looking at me like I was the rude one. I guess we all have our opinions. My wife was mowing the lawn around the cabin over the weekend. There is a sheet of plywood that has been stored, leaning against the back of the cabin for lack of any better place to put it. During a storm a few weeks ago, it blew over and was laying flat on the ground. My wife had told me I needed to do something with it or we would have snakes living under it. I should point out, my wife hates snakes, any kind of snake, live snakes or dead ones, and sticks on the ground
that look like snakes. I was mowing some distance away when I noticed she was stopped near the back side of the cabin. I shifted my mower into high gear and made a direct path to the cabin. If she picked up that sheet of plywood and there was a snake under it, it would not be good for her, me, or the snake. I got over there before she got off her mower. When I went to pick up the plywood, she offered to help. I declined her offer saying it would rather defeat the purpose of my coming over there. She stepped back and yes, a snake was under there. My wife was happy I was the one to discover the snake’s hiding place. The snake did not know it, but he should be happy also. After the fact, we know we should not have been so startled by unplanned encounters with little wild creatures, but for some reason we are.
